Bonn 2010 – scientific programme
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 85: Beschleunigerphysik VIII
T 85.7: Talk
Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 15:35–15:50, HG ÜR 8
High-power laser infrastructure at MPQ: ATLAS laser facility — •Konstantin Khrennikov1, Johannes Wenz1, Matthias Heigoldt1, Zsuzsanna Major1, Antonia Popp1, Raphael Weingartner1, Matthias Fuchs1, Joseph Irlinger1, Patrick Heissler1, Daniel Jung1, Daniel Kiefer1, Rainer Hoerlein1, Klaus Witte1, Dieter Habs1,2, Ferenc Krausz1,2 und Stefan Karsch1 — 1Max Planck Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany — 2Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany
In recent years, laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) has shown a potential to become a common compact source of ultra-relativistic particles. However the laser parameters should meet tight specifications to make the scheme successful and reliable. In order to reach this goal the ATLAS laser at MPQ has undergone a major upgrade. The pulse length has been reduced to 25fs to fit perfectly to the half plasma-wavelength(by conventional densities in the order of 1018 cm−3). Pulse energy has been increased to 2J to extend the acceleration length (and hence output electron energies). Automatic beam alignment system has been introduced to stabilize the laser pointing, which is a key feature for the stability of final laser parameters, which in turn leads to increase in field reproducibility on target. First steps towards temporal contrast improvement have been made to make the laser appropriate also for thin-foil acceleration schemes (where best results are achieved with minimal foil thickness of several nm, which are readily destroyed by even weak prepulses). Future upgrade plans will be presented leading to futher enhancement of particle beam characteristics.