Workshop Working Groups
Laser-Plasma Acceleration:
Plasma Guiding Sub-Group
Group-Leader: Howard Milchberg, UMD (milch@ipst.umd.edu)
Co-Group-Leader: Carl Schroeder, LBNL (CBSchroeder@lbl.gov)
Optical guiding of intense laser
pulses is critical for increasing laser-plasma interaction
lengths in laser wakefield accelerators as well as for
applications such as harmonic generation and x-ray lasers.
Without some form of optical guiding the laser-plasma
interaction distance will be limited to a few Rayleigh
ranges owing to laser diffraction. A wide variety of
techniques for guiding intense laser pulses has been
investigated, including relativistic and ponderomotive
channeling, hollow(passive) capillary tubes, ablation
of capillaries by electrical discharges, z-pinch discharges,
and laser-induced shocks.
In this working group (WG) we
will examine techniques for production of long plasma
channels (increased laser-plasma interaction length),
production of low density (on-axis) channels (low plasma
density increases detuning length), plasma density control
(tapering, effect of plasma channel shape on beam propagation),
and plasma diagnostics. The WG will be tasked with identifying
the advantages and disadvantages of present guiding
methods with respect to achieving a 1 GeV laser-plasma-based
accelerating stage and identifying goals for future
guiding experiments and studies.
The WG will accept contributed
papers and ask invited speakers to review topics of
general interest to the WG participants. |