Measurement of Magnetic-Field Structures in a Laser-Wakefield Accelerator

M. C. Kaluza, H.-P. Schlenvoigt, S. P. D. Mangles, A. G. R. Thomas, A. E. Dangor, H. Schwoerer, W. B. Mori, Z. Najmudin, and K. M. Krushelnick

Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 115002 – Published 7 September 2010

Abstract

Experimental measurements of magnetic fields generated in the cavity of a self-injecting laser-wakefield accelerator are presented. Faraday rotation is used to determine the existence of multimegagauss fields, constrained to a transverse dimension comparable to the plasma wavelength $\sim λ_{p}$ and several $λ_{p}$ longitudinally. The fields are generated rapidly and move with the driving laser. In our experiment, the appearance of the magnetic fields is correlated with the production of relativistic electrons, indicating that they are inherently tied to the growth and wave breaking of the nonlinear plasma wave. This evolution is confirmed by numerical simulations, showing that these measurements provide insight into the wakefield evolution with high spatial and temporal resolution.

Received 15 April 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.115002

Authors & Affiliations

M. C. Kaluza^1,2,3, H.-P. Schlenvoigt^1,4, S. P. D. Mangles³, A. G. R. Thomas^3,5, A. E. Dangor³, H. Schwoerer^1,6, W. B. Mori^7,8, Z. Najmudin³, and K. M. Krushelnick^3,5

¹Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, 07743 Jena, Germany
²Helmholtz-Institut Jena, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, 07743 Jena, Germany
³Department of Physics, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
⁴LULI, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau cedex, France
⁵Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
⁶Laser Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa
⁷Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
⁸Department of Electrical Engineering, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

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Vol. 105, Iss. 11 — 10 September 2010

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