Greater than 1000-fold Gain in a Free-Electron Laser Driven by a Laser-Plasma Accelerator with High Reliability
Compact free-electron lasers (FELs) based on plasma-based accelerators have been envisioned for many years. While recent milestone experiments have demonstrated feasibility, further progress is needed to establish laser-plasma-accelerator-driven FELs as reliable light sources. Demonstrating both full FEL saturation and reliable operation commensurate with conventional FEL facilities is critical. We report progress on both of these fronts. FEL gain exceeding 1000 at a wavelength of 420 nm in the self-amplified spontaneous emission regime has been measured. Lower and upper bounds for the characteristic exponential gain length were measured at 16.7-22.5 cm. Additionally, reliability of the laser-plasma-accelerator-driven FEL, defined here as the percentage of shots displaying FEL gain, reached an unprecedented level of greater than 90% over the course of an hour while operating at 1 Hz repetition rate.
Authors
- S. Schröder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0649-9995)
- J. van Tilborg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7028-7735)
- E. Esarey
- C. G. R. Geddes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3763-9743)
- Christopher Doss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5042-2744)
- Jens Osterhoff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7684-0140)
- A. J. Gonsalves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2567-7582)
- B. M. Hegelich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4709-3112)
- Fumika Isono (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5182-6860)
- Stephen Milton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1213-010X)
- Lance Labun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1478-5254)
- K. Nakamura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9842-7114)
- C. B. Schroeder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9610-0166)
- Curtis J. Berger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3061-2406)
- Reinier van Mourik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5941-6241)
- Miguel Gracia-Linares (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5033-2973)
- Kyle Jensen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3810-6903)
- G. R. Plateau
- Zachary Eisentraut
- Finn Kohrell
- Karl J. Friston
Institutions
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- University of California System (US)
- Tao Systems (United States) (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-05-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/vh62-gz1p
- Citations
- 10
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 18.70
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Office of Science
- Basic Energy Sciences
- High Energy Physics