A. Ting et al., PLASMA WAKEFIELD GENERATION AND ELECTRON ACCELERATION IN A SELF-MODULATED LASER WAKEFIELD ACCELERATOR EXPERIMENT, Physics of plasmas, 4(5), 1997, pp. 1889-1899
A self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator (SM-LWFA) experiment was
performed at the Naval Research Laboratory. Large amplitude plasma wak
efields produced by a sub-picosecond, high intensity laser pulse (7 x
10(18) W/cm(2)) in an underdense plasma (n(e) approximate to 10(19) cm
(-3)) were measured with a pump-probe coherent Thomson scattering (CTS
) technique to last for less than 5 ps, consistent with the decay of l
arge amplitude plasma waves due to the modulational instability. A pla
sma channel was observed to form in the wake of the pump laser pulse,
and its evolution was measured with the pump-probe CTS diagnostic. The
trailing probe laser pulse was observed to be guided by this channel
for about 20 Rayleigh lengths. High energy electrons (up to 30 MeV) ha
ve been measured using an electro-magnetic spectrometer, with the ener
gy spectra and divergence of lower energy (up to 4 MeV) electrons obta
ined using photographic films. Highly nonlinear plasma waves were also
detected using forward Raman scattering diagnostics and were observed
to correlate with the electron signals. Simulations of self-trapping
of plasma electrons from the interaction of the laser wakefield with t
he slow plasma wave generated by Raman backscattering are also present
ed. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.