Laser wakefield electron acceleration with PW lasers and future applications

Abstract

Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), owing to its large acceleration field, is a promising method for overcoming the limitations of radio-frequency linear accelerators. Recent demonstrations of petawatt (PW) lasers have afforded opportunities for further advancing research on LWFA. The research group at the ultrashort quantum beam facility (UQBF), Advanced Photonics Research Institute (APRI), Gwangju institute of science and Technology (GIST), developed PW lasers in 2010 and successfully applied these PW lasers to LWFA. LWFA research involving PW lasers was succeeded by the Center for Relativistic Laser Science (CoReLS), Institute for Basic Science (IBS). In this review, we summarize the research results from UQBF and CoReLS pertaining to LWFA.