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Brilliant Light Sources driven by Laser-Plasma Accelerators

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Synchrotron Light Sources and Free-Electron Lasers

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Abstract

Brilliant light sources, such as free-electron lasers, are an essential tool for a multidisciplinary research community, ranging from medicine and life sciences to fundamental physics, as they enable new insights into processes on atomic length and time scales. Laser-plasma accelerators bear the promise to drive future compact free-electron lasers. A high-energy laser pulse excites a density perturbation in a plasma, generating large electric fields, which can accelerate electron beams to GeV scale energies over only a few centimeters acceleration length. Synchronized to an optical laser and with intrinsic pulse lengths on a few-femtosecond scale, an X-ray beam derived from such a bunch promises highest temporal resolution. Here, an introduction to the basic physics of laser-plasma acceleration and its recent development will be given, followed by a brief discourse on the theory of free-electron lasers. Based on this, we discuss the challenges arising when designing a laser-plasma-based free-electron laser.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank I. Dornmair, S. Reiche, C. B. Schroeder and R. Lehe for fruitful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Free-Electron Laser Science & Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, 22761, Luruper Chaussee 149, Hamburg, Germany

    Andreas R. Maier, Manuel Kirchen & Florian Grüner

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  1. Andreas R. Maier
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  2. Manuel Kirchen
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  3. Florian Grüner
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Correspondence to Andreas R. Maier .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Eberhard Jaeschke

  2. Zentrum für Synchrotronstrahlung, TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

    Shaukat Khan

  3. FS-CFEL-1, DESY, Hamburg, Germany

    Jochen R. Schneider

  4. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Linac Coherent Light Source, Stanford University, Menlo Park, California, USA

    Jerome B. Hastings

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Maier, A.R., Kirchen, M., Grüner, F. (2016). Brilliant Light Sources driven by Laser-Plasma Accelerators. In: Jaeschke, E., Khan, S., Schneider, J., Hastings, J. (eds) Synchrotron Light Sources and Free-Electron Lasers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04507-8_21-2

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  1. Latest

    Brilliant Light Sources driven by Laser-Plasma Accelerators
    Published:
    05 February 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04507-8_21-2

  2. Original

    Brilliant Light Sources driven by Laser-Plasma Accelerators
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    17 July 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04507-8_21-1

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