Development of a source of quasi-monochromatic MeV energy photons

Donald Umstadter, Sudeep Banerjee, Vidya Ramanathan, Nathan Powers, Nathaniel Cunningham, Nate Chandler-Smith

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report current progress on a project to develop an all-optically-driven x-ray photon source. A laser pulse with 40-50 TW of peak power is focused on a supersonic helium nozzle to drive a relativistic plasma wave. Electron beams with energies of 320 MeV (+/- 28 MeV) are accelerated by means of laser wakefield acceleration. Remarkably, the acceleration region is only 3 mm in length. This accelerator is currently being employed to demonstrate the generation of MeV-energy x-ray by means of all-optical Thomson scattering. By this mechanism, a lower power, laser pulse (from the same laser system) is focused onto the above laser-driven electron beam, 1-eV energy photons are Doppler-shifted in energy to > 1 MeV.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)606-609
Number of pages4
JournalAIP Conference Proceedings
Volume1099
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Event20th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, CAARI 2008 - Fort Worth, TX, United States
Duration: Aug 10 2008Aug 15 2008

Keywords

  • Thomson scattering
  • Wakefield acceleration
  • X-rays

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Development of a source of quasi-monochromatic MeV energy photons'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this