Monoenergetic beams of relativistic electrons from intense laser-plasma interactions

High-power lasers that fit into a university-scale laboratory can now reach focused intensities of more than 10(19) W cm(-2) at high repetition rates. Such lasers are capable of producing beams of energetic electrons, protons and gamma-rays. Relativistic electrons are generated through the breaking of large-amplitude relativistic plasma waves created in the wake of the laser pulse as it propagates through a plasma, or through a direct interaction between the laser field and the electrons in the plasma. However, the electron beams produced from previous laser-plasma experiments have a large energy spread, limiting their use for potential applications. Here we report high-resolution energy measurements of the electron beams produced from intense laser-plasma interactions, showing that--under particular plasma conditions--it is possible to generate beams of relativistic electrons with low divergence and a small energy spread (less than three per cent). The monoenergetic features were observed in the electron energy spectrum for plasma densities just above a threshold required for breaking of the plasma wave. These features were observed consistently in the electron spectrum, although the energy of the beam was observed to vary from shot to shot. If the issue of energy reproducibility can be addressed, it should be possible to generate ultrashort monoenergetic electron bunches of tunable energy, holding great promise for the future development of 'table-top' particle accelerators.     

High-quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator using plasma-channel guiding

Laser-driven accelerators, in which particles are accelerated by the electric field of a plasma wave (the wakefield) driven by an intense laser, have demonstrated accelerating electric fields of hundreds of GV m(-1) (refs 1-3). These fields are thousands of times greater than those achievable in conventional radio-frequency accelerators, spurring interest in laser accelerators as compact next-generation sources of energetic electrons and radiation. To date, however, acceleration distances have been severely limited by the lack of a controllable method for extending the propagation distance of the focused laser pulse. The ensuing short acceleration distance results in low-energy beams with 100 per cent electron energy spread, which limits potential applications. Here we demonstrate a laser accelerator that produces electron beams with an energy spread of a few per cent, low emittance and increased energy (more than 10(9) electrons above 80 MeV). Our technique involves the use of a preformed plasma density channel to guide a relativistically intense laser, resulting in a longer propagation distance. The results open the way for compact and tunable high-brightness sources of electrons and radiation.     

Controlled injection and acceleration of electrons in plasma wakefields by colliding laser pulses

In laser-plasma-based accelerators, an intense laser pulse drives a large electric field (the wakefield) which accelerates particles to high energies in distances much shorter than in conventional accelerators. These high acceleration gradients, of a few hundreds of gigavolts per metre, hold the promise of compact high-energy particle accelerators. Recently, several experiments have shown that laser-plasma accelerators can produce high-quality electron beams, with quasi-monoenergetic energy distributions at the 100 MeV level. However, these beams do not have the stability and reproducibility that are required for applications. This is because the mechanism responsible for injecting electrons into the wakefield is based on highly nonlinear phenomena, and is therefore hard to control. Here we demonstrate that the injection and subsequent acceleration of electrons can be controlled by using a second laser pulse. The collision of the two laser pulses provides a pre-acceleration stage which provokes the injection of electrons into the wakefield. The experimental results show that the electron beams obtained in this manner are collimated (5 mrad divergence), monoenergetic (with energy spread <10 per cent), tuneable (between 15 and 250 MeV) and, most importantly, stable. In addition, the experimental observations are compatible with electron bunch durations shorter than 10 fs. We anticipate that this stable and compact electron source will have a strong impact on applications requiring short bunches, such as the femtolysis of water, or high stability, such as radiotherapy with high-energy electrons or radiography for materials science.     

Laser acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic MeV ion beams

Acceleration of particles by intense laser-plasma interactions represents a rapidly evolving field of interest, as highlighted by the recent demonstration of laser-driven relativistic beams of monoenergetic electrons. Ultrahigh-intensity lasers can produce accelerating fields of 10 TV m(-1) (1 TV = 10(12) V), surpassing those in conventional accelerators by six orders of magnitude. Laser-driven ions with energies of several MeV per nucleon have also been produced. Such ion beams exhibit unprecedented characteristics--short pulse lengths, high currents and low transverse emittance--but their exponential energy spectra have almost 100% energy spread. This large energy spread, which is a consequence of the experimental conditions used to date, remains the biggest impediment to the wider use of this technology. Here we report the production of quasi-monoenergetic laser-driven C5+ ions with a vastly reduced energy spread of 17%. The ions have a mean energy of 3 MeV per nucleon (full-width at half-maximum approximately 0.5 MeV per nucleon) and a longitudinal emittance of less than 2 x 10(-6) eV s for pulse durations shorter than 1 ps. Such laser-driven, high-current, quasi-monoenergetic ion sources may enable significant advances in the development of compact MeV ion accelerators, new diagnostics, medical physics, inertial confinement fusion and fast ignition.     

A laser-plasma accelerator producing monoenergetic electron beams

Particle accelerators are used in a wide variety of fields, ranging from medicine and biology to high-energy physics. The accelerating fields in conventional accelerators are limited to a few tens of MeV m(-1), owing to material breakdown at the walls of the structure. Thus, the production of energetic particle beams currently requires large-scale accelerators and expensive infrastructures. Laser-plasma accelerators have been proposed as a next generation of compact accelerators because of the huge electric fields they can sustain (>100 GeV m(-1)). However, it has been difficult to use them efficiently for applications because they have produced poor-quality particle beams with large energy spreads, owing to a randomization of electrons in phase space. Here we demonstrate that this randomization can be suppressed and that the quality of the electron beams can be dramatically enhanced. Within a length of 3 mm, the laser drives a plasma bubble that traps and accelerates plasma electrons. The resulting electron beam is extremely collimated and quasi-monoenergetic, with a high charge of 0.5 nC at 170 MeV.     

Energy doubling of 42 GeV electrons in a metre-scale plasma wakefield accelerator

The energy frontier of particle physics is several trillion electron volts, but colliders capable of reaching this regime (such as the Large Hadron Collider and the International Linear Collider) are costly and time-consuming to build; it is therefore important to explore new methods of accelerating particles to high energies. Plasma-based accelerators are particularly attractive because they are capable of producing accelerating fields that are orders of magnitude larger than those used in conventional colliders. In these accelerators, a drive beam (either laser or particle) produces a plasma wave (wakefield) that accelerates charged particles. The ultimate utility of plasma accelerators will depend on sustaining ultrahigh accelerating fields over a substantial length to achieve a significant energy gain. Here we show that an energy gain of more than 42 GeV is achieved in a plasma wakefield accelerator of 85 cm length, driven by a 42 GeV electron beam at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). The results are in excellent agreement with the predictions of three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Most of the beam electrons lose energy to the plasma wave, but some electrons in the back of the same beam pulse are accelerated with a field of approximately 52 GV m(-1). This effectively doubles their energy, producing the energy gain of the 3-km-long SLAC accelerator in less than a metre for a small fraction of the electrons in the injected bunch. This is an important step towards demonstrating the viability of plasma accelerators for high-energy physics applications.     

地球磁场中任意投掷角的带电粒子运动轨迹

磁暴和亚暴过程中等离子体片带电粒子的注入严重影响了地球空间环境,导致环电流的增强或衰减,形成质子极光,影响中高层大气的物理化学过程。本研究利用UBK方法计算了穿越子夜(MLT=0)不同能量和投掷角的质子和电子漂移轨道,分析了粒子的来源区域和后续轨道特征。研究结果表明,穿过L=7的投掷角为90°的质子,能量低于~2keV时会逆时针绕地球作漂移运动,能量高于~4keV时则会顺时针绕地球作漂移运动。能量高于15keV的质子的漂移轨道形成闭合轨道。穿过L=7的投掷角为90°的电子均绕地球逆时针漂移,且能量高于5keV时形成闭合轨道。穿过L=4的质子,除了10keV左右的质子,轨道都呈现闭合状态,说明从等离子片来的10keV左右的质子可以更靠近地球;穿过L=4的电子都处在闭合轨道上。投掷角越小的质子越偏向于向晨侧运动,能量越高的质子受投掷角变化影响越小,投掷角的变化对电子的轨道几乎没有影响。Kp指数较大时,粒子的运动方向随能量变化不明显,但是轨道更难闭合,并更接近地球。     

High-energy particle acceleration in the shell of a supernova remnant

A significant fraction of the energy density of the interstellar medium is in the form of high-energy charged particles (cosmic rays). The origin of these particles remains uncertain. Although it is generally accepted that the only sources capable of supplying the energy required to accelerate the bulk of Galactic cosmic rays are supernova explosions, and even though the mechanism of particle acceleration in expanding supernova remnant (SNR) shocks is thought to be well understood theoretically, unequivocal evidence for the production of high-energy particles in supernova shells has proven remarkably hard to find. Here we report on observations of the SNR RX J1713.7 - 3946 (G347.3 - 0.5), which was discovered by ROSAT in the X-ray spectrum and later claimed as a source of high-energy gamma-rays of TeV energies (1 TeV = 10(12) eV). We present a TeV gamma-ray image of the SNR: the spatially resolved remnant has a shell morphology similar to that seen in X-rays, which demonstrates that very-high-energy particles are accelerated there. The energy spectrum indicates efficient acceleration of charged particles to energies beyond 100 TeV, consistent with current ideas of particle acceleration in young SNR shocks.     

微波等离子体电子回旋共振放电粒子模拟分析

电子回旋共振放电产生的等离子体在微电子工业中材料加工、空间电推进方面有着广泛的应用。为了研究微波等离子体电子回旋共振的放电特性,使电子回旋共振放电产生的等离子体密度和能量转换效率更高,建立了微波等离子体电子回旋共振放电的1D3V模型,描述了带电粒子在外加静磁场、微波场共同作用下的微观运动。结果表明:微波频率为2.45 GHz时,随着静磁场磁感应强度的增加,平均电子能量先持续增大达到峰值,随后又不断地减小,且在0.087 5 T时电子加速效果最明显,结果符合电子的回旋频率公式,验证了该模型的正确性;共振区域内,发现在0.087 5 T磁感应强度下,微波频率为2.45 GHz下拟合的电子速度分布才与微波电场分布趋势相似,说明微波电场推动了电子运动。这为进一步研究微波等离子体放电的粒子模拟-蒙特卡罗碰撞模拟奠定了基础,也为进一步研究微波等离子体源中粒子产生效率及微波等离子体源的物理性质提供了重要参考。     

How many-particle interactions develop after ultrafast excitation of an electron-hole plasma.

Electrostatic coupling between particles is important in many microscopic phenomena found in nature. The interaction between two isolated point charges is described by the bare Coulomb potential, but in many-body systems this interaction is modified as a result of the collective response of the screening cloud surrounding each charge carrier. One such system involves ultrafast interactions between quasi-free electrons in semiconductors-which are central to high-speed and future quantum electronic devices. The femtosecond kinetics of nonequilibrium Coulomb systems has been calculated using static and dynamical screening models that assume the instantaneous formation of interparticle correlations. However, some quantum kinetic theories suggest that a regime of unscreened bare Coulomb collisions might exist on ultrashort timescales. Here we monitor directly the temporal evolution of the charge-charge interactions after ultrafast excitation of an electron-hole plasma in GaAs. We show that the onset of collective behaviour such as Coulomb screening and plasmon scattering exhibits a distinct time delay of the order of the inverse plasma frequency, that is, several 10(-14) seconds.     

带电粒子束在真空中传输时的扩散研究

根据相对论力学对带电粒子束在其自生场作用下通过外层空间的真空中传输时束的扩散进行了研究。提出了一种计算粒子束径向半径扩散的方法;计算并讨论了粒子束类型、能量、流强和出口初始半径等各种因素对束扩散的影响;得出了尽可能减少粒子束扩散的束参数,所得结果同现有公布的数据相符合。     

Simultaneous micromanipulation in multiple planes using a self-reconstructing light beam

Optical tweezers are commonly used for manipulating microscopic particles, with applications in cell manipulation, colloid research, manipulation of micromachines and studies of the properties of light beams. Such tweezers work by the transfer of momentum from a tightly focused laser to the particle, which refracts and scatters the light and distorts the profile of the beam. The forces produced by this process cause the particle to be trapped near the beam focus. Conventional tweezers use gaussian light beams, which cannot trap particles in multiple locations more than a few micrometres apart in the axial direction, because of beam distortion by the particle and subsequent strong divergence from the focal plane. Bessel beams, however, do not diverge and, furthermore, if part of the beam is obstructed or distorted the beam reconstructs itself after a characteristic propagation distance. Here we show how this reconstructive property may be utilized within optical tweezers to trap particles in multiple, spatially separated sample cells with a single beam. Owing to the diffractionless nature of the Bessel beam, secondary trapped particles can reside in a second sample cell far removed ( approximately 3 mm) from the first cell. Such tweezers could be used for the simultaneous study of identically prepared ensembles of colloids and biological matter, and potentially offer enhanced control of 'lab-on-a-chip' and optically driven microstructures.     

Fabrication and field emission performance of arrays of vacuum microdiodes containing CuO nanowire emitters grown directly on glass without a catalyst

Arrays of vacuum microelectronic sources are fabricated on a glass substrate using cupric oxide (CuO) nanowire emitters. The arrays of electron sources possess a microdiode structure, which can effectively induce field emission and control the delivery of emitted electrons to the anode in a triode-type device operation. A technique for precisely growing CuO nanowires at the centre of microcavities in an array without using a catalyst and at temperatures as low as 400°C is presented. Such a simplified fabrication procedure results in improved field emission performance from the array compared with previous vacuum microelectronic devices. Typical prototype devices have turn-on gate voltages as low as 169 V to give emission current densities of 10 μA/cm2 at the anode. The ratio of anode current to cathode current reaches ~0.85, and the maximum change in emission current density per volt is 1 μA/cm2. Electron emission from the arrays is stable and reproducible under either pulsed or direct current fields. These characteristics indicate that microgate-controlled CuO nanowire emitters may find application in practical devices.     

Interference between two indistinguishable electrons from independent sources

Very much like the ubiquitous quantum interference of a single particle with itself, quantum interference of two independent, but indistinguishable, particles is also possible. For a single particle, the interference is between the amplitudes of the particle's wavefunctions, whereas the interference between two particles is a direct result of quantum exchange statistics. Such interference is observed only in the joint probability of finding the particles in two separated detectors, after they were injected from two spatially separated and independent sources. Experimental realizations of two-particle interferometers have been proposed; in these proposals it was shown that such correlations are a direct signature of quantum entanglement between the spatial degrees of freedom of the two particles ('orbital entanglement'), even though they do not interact with each other. In optics, experiments using indistinguishable pairs of photons encountered difficulties in generating pairs of independent photons and synchronizing their arrival times; thus they have concentrated on detecting bunching of photons (bosons) by coincidence measurements. Similar experiments with electrons are rather scarce. Cross-correlation measurements between partitioned currents, emanating from one source, yielded similar information to that obtained from auto-correlation (shot noise) measurements. The proposal of ref. 3 is an electronic analogue to the historical Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiment with classical light. It is based on the electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer that uses edge channels in the quantum Hall effect regime. Here we implement such an interferometer. We partitioned two independent and mutually incoherent electron beams into two trajectories, so that the combined four trajectories enclosed an Aharonov-Bohm flux. Although individual currents and their fluctuations (shot noise measured by auto-correlation) were found to be independent of the Aharonov-Bohm flux, the cross-correlation between current fluctuations at two opposite points across the device exhibited strong Aharonov-Bohm oscillations, suggesting orbital entanglement between the two electron beams.     

外电场对双极荷电颗粒碰撞及凝聚的影响

为确定外电场对双极凝聚的影响,采用FORTRAN程序,通过计算得到颗粒在一定电流体场条件下的电荷分布统计规律,并考察外电场对双极荷电颗粒间的碰撞凝聚规律.计算结果表明,只有当荷电颗粒所受电场力与阻力的量级之比接近于1时,外电场才能起到增强双极凝聚效果的作用;在相同条件下,颗粒直径越大,外电场增强双极荷电颗粒的碰撞效果也越大.     

Observation of spin Coulomb drag in a two-dimensional electron gas

An electron propagating through a solid carries spin angular momentum in addition to its mass and charge. Of late there has been considerable interest in developing electronic devices based on the transport of spin that offer potential advantages in dissipation, size and speed over charge-based devices. However, these advantages bring with them additional complexity. Because each electron carries a single, fixed value (- e) of charge, the electrical current carried by a gas of electrons is simply proportional to its total momentum. A fundamental consequence is that the charge current is not affected by interactions that conserve total momentum, notably collisions among the electrons themselves. In contrast, the electron's spin along a given spatial direction can take on two values, +/- [planck]/2 (conventionally upward arrow, downward arrow), so that the spin current and momentum need not be proportional. Although the transport of spin polarization is not protected by momentum conservation, it has been widely assumed that, like the charge current, spin current is unaffected by electron-electron (e-e) interactions. Here we demonstrate experimentally not only that this assumption is invalid, but also that over a broad range of temperature and electron density, the flow of spin polarization in a two-dimensional gas of electrons is controlled by the rate of e-e collisions.     

Current-induced resonance and mass determination of a single magnetic domain wall

A magnetic domain wall (DW) is a spatially localized change of magnetization configuration in a magnet. This topological object has been predicted to behave at low energy as a composite particle with finite mass. This particle will couple directly with electric currents as well as magnetic fields, and its manipulation using electric currents is of particular interest with regard to the development of high-density magnetic memories. The DW mass sets the ultimate operation speed of these devices, but has yet to be determined experimentally. Here we report the direct observation of the dynamics of a single DW in a ferromagnetic nanowire, which demonstrates that such a topological particle has a very small but finite mass of 6.6 x 10(-23) kg. This measurement was realized by preparing a tunable DW potential in the nanowire, and detecting the resonance motion of the DW induced by an oscillating current. The resonance also allows low-current operation, which is crucial in device applications; a DW displacement of 10 microm was induced by a current density of 10(10) A m(-2).     

串镜热垒中冷电子对穿行离子的阻滞作用

在串镜热垒装置的设计中，捕获粒子流的计算是一个重要的问题．计算捕获粒子流需要考虑穿行离子所受到的阻滞作用。它来自两个方面，离子与离子的库仑碰撞对穿行离子的阻滞作用和热垒中冷电子对穿行离子的阻滞作用。从作用的特征时间入手，比较了不同情况下两种阻滞作用的相对重要性。结论是：在一般的串镜热垒装置的真空条件（１０－３～１０－４Ｐａ）下，对于温度相当低的那部分冷电子而言，它对穿行离子的阴滞作用与离子的阻滞作用相比是同等重要的。     

等离子体中在极板上运动的介质颗粒的带电量测量

采用直流放电产生均匀等离子体,研究下极板上运动的带电颗粒的带电量问题.通过分析带电的介质颗粒发生碰撞运动时的碰撞轨迹,进而得到颗粒运动的相对速度等参量,最终求得颗粒的带电量Q,Q为10⁶~10⁷ e.实验结果对深入研究尘埃等离子体中带电颗粒的各种复杂运动提供了依据.     

高频感应热等离子体中颗粒运动和加热的研究

颗粒在热等离子体中运动和加热的研究，有广泛的工业应用价值。本文通过颗粒与热等离子体相互作用的计算，给出了颗粒在热等离子体中运动轨迹和加热历程的一些数值模拟结果，为有效控制颗粒的运动轨迹和在高温区的停留时间，提供了依据。