Lasers for Plasma Accelerators

Leonida_Antonio Gizzi

Laser-driven plasma acceleration is now entering the transition phase to deliver particle accelerator and light source as user facilities based on this novel technology. The EuPRAXIA Compact European Plasma Accelerator with Superior Beam Quality is a paramount example of this transition, aiming at delivering the first European user infrastructure based on plasma and laser-driven accelerator technology. A comprehensive approach looking at laser drivers as “accelerator components” will be needed and is now being pursued in the broader context of Innovation Fostering in Accelerator Science and Technology (I.FAST) and is expected to deliver soon a roadmap for development of systems required for an intermediate level accelerator demonstrator, using moderate upgrades of existing technology. Indeed, a number of laser architectures capable of delivering ultrashort, PW-scale laser pulses at high repetition rate, from tens of Hz to kHz and beyond, with high average power, including Ti:Sa with and OPCPA diode-pumped pump lasers, are being explored and developed and some are already approaching the specs required for the first stage of operation of such infrastructures, with significant industrial engagement. In the longer term, technology issues still remain and should be tackled using an accelerator-oriented approach, focusing on accelerator needs with developments toward improved stability, reliability and affordability. At the same time, driver developments are looking into more scalable approaches like diode-pumping of CPA-capable gain materials like Thulium doped crystals and ceramics, coherent combination of fibers and much more, to fulfill efficiency, lifetime and cost requirements of future higher luminosity accelerators. An overview will also be given on existing and planned developments at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory of CNR-INO in Pisa, in the context of secondary source developments for biomedical and industrial uses of laser-driven accelerators.

L.A. Gizzi is an experimental physicist in the field of high power lasers, plasmas and applications to particle acceleration, secondary sources and inertial fusion energy. He received his “Laurea” degree in Physics from the University of Pisa in 1989 and his Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London (UK) in 1994. He joined CNR in 1995 where he is now Research Director and Head of the Pisa Section of the National Institute of Optics (CNR-INO). He is also Director of the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory, a unique PW-scale high power laser installation established in the framework of the Extreme Light Infrastructure initiative. LAG is also associate researcher of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics. He is co-author of more than 280 publications, including >200 JCR publications (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6572-6492)