Relativistic laser driven electron accelerator using micro-channel plasma targets

We present an experimental demonstration of the efficient acceleration of electrons beyond 60 MeV using micro-channel plasma targets. We employed a high-contrast, 2.5 J, 32 fs short pulse laser interacting with a 5 μm inner diameter, 300 μm long micro-channel plasma target. The micro-channel was aligned to be collinear with the incident laser pulse, confining the majority of the laser energy within the channel. The measured electron spectrum showed a large increase in the cut-off energy and slope temperature when compared to that from a 2 μm flat Copper target, with the cutoff energy more than doubled and the total energy in electrons >5 MeV enhanced by over 10 times. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations confirm efficient direct laser acceleration enabled by the novel structure as the dominant acceleration mechanism for the high energy electrons. The simulations further reveal the guiding effect of the channel that successfully explains preferential acceleration on the laser/channel axis observe...