doi:10.1016/S0168-9002(99)00222-3 
Copyright © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Gas breakdown limit and maximum acceleration gradient for inverse Cherenkov laser accelerator
Y. Liu
, 
, a, I. V. Pogorelskyb and D. Clinea
a Center for Advanced Accelerators, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
b Accelerator Test Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA
Received 30 September 1997;
revised 14 January 1999.
Available online 29 June 1999.
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Abstract
Laser intensity thresholds for CO2 laser-induced gas breakdown, such as tunneling, multiphoton, and cascade ionization have been estimated for the inverse Cherenkov accelerator experiment at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility. The gas breakdown is dominated by cascade ionization and the maximum acceleration gradient is up to 300 MeV/m for a 3 ps CO2 laser.
Author Keywords: Accelerator; Avalanche; Breakdown; Cherenkov; Ionization; Laser; Threshold; Tunneling
PACS classification codes: 41.75.J; 79.70
Fig. 1. Axicon focusing geometry for the inverse Cherenkov interaction.
Fig. 2. The tunneling ionization probability P vs. the laser peak intensity I[W/cm2]. The laser pulse widths used are 2τp=3,10,50 ps. The integration time, Δt, is equal to 2τp for each case.
Fig. 3. The contribution of a Gaussian-shaped laser pulse duration with different pulse widths to the tunneling ionization probability. The laser peak intensity used is 30 TW/cm2. The pulse widths are 3, 10, 50 ps. Only 30% of the pulse duration that straddles the peak intensity is the most productive ionization period. The ionization essentially stops after 30% of the pulse width.
Fig. 4. The input laser beam intensity distributions at the axicon surface and their corresponding longitudinal electric fields along the z-axis. The field longitudinal dimension is 20 cm and θc=20 mrad. (A) Gaussian beam, (B) “donut shaped” Gaussian beam and inner radius is R0=0.3 cm, (C) hyperbolic beam (W(R)
1/R); (D)–(F) are the longitudinal electric fields along the z-axis yielded, respectively, by (A)–(C).
Table 1. The input laser pulse width is 2τp=3 ps and the laser intensity threshold for gas breakdown is Ith=10 TW/cm2
Table 2. The input laser pulse width is 2τp=50 ps and the laser intensity threshold for gas breakdown is Ith=0.6 TW/cm2
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