Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Experiments at the LOASIS laboratory of LBNL recently demonstrated production of 100 MeV electron beams with low energy spread and low divergence from laser wakefield acceleration. The radiation pressure of a 10 TW laser pulse guided over 10 diffraction ranges by a plasma density channel was used to drive an intense plasma wave (wakefield), producing acceleration gradients on the order of 100 GV/m in a mm-scale channel. Beam energy has now been increased from 100 to 1000 MeV by using a cm-scale guiding channel at lower density, driven by a 40 TW laser, demonstrating the anticipated scaling to higher beam energies. Particle simulations indicate that the low energy spread beams were produced from self trapped electrons through the interplay of trapping, loading, and dephasing. Other experiments and simulations are also underway to control injection of particles into the wake, and hence improve beam quality and stability further.