Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Coherence and superradiance from a plasma-based quasiparticle accelerator

Nature Photonics (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Coherent light sources, such as free-electron lasers, provide bright beams for studies in biology, chemistry and physics. However, increasing the brightness of these sources requires progressively larger instruments, with the largest examples, such as the Linac Coherent Light Source at Stanford, being several kilometres long. It would be transformative if this scaling trend could be overcome so that compact, bright sources could be employed at universities, hospitals and industrial laboratories. Here we address this issue by rethinking the basic principles of radiation physics. At the core of our work is the introduction of quasiparticle-based light sources that rely on the collective and macroscopic motion of an ensemble of light-emitting charges to evolve and radiate in ways that would be unphysical for single charges. The underlying concept allows for temporal coherence and superradiance in new configurations, such as in plasma accelerators, providing radiation with intriguing properties and clear experimental signatures spanning nearly ten octaves in wavelength, from the terahertz to the extreme ultraviolet. The simplicity of the quasiparticle approach makes it suitable for experimental demonstrations at existing laser and accelerator facilities and also extends well beyond this case to other scenarios such as nonlinear optical configurations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Nonlinear plasma wakefields and their radiation.
Fig. 2: Onset of quasiparticle Cherenkov emission.
Fig. 3: Quasiparticle Cherenkov radiation in a LWFA.
Fig. 4: Quasiparticle undulator radiation for an oscillating quasiparticle with ωc = 0.1ωp and Δxc = 0.25c/ωp.
Fig. 5: Peak brightness estimated as a function of photon energy for nonlinear wakefield quasiparticle radiation, spanning frequencies ranging from terahertz to extreme ultraviolet.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Due to the large size of the datasets, all data that support the plots within this paper and the other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

All computer codes supporting the findings of this study are fully documented within the paper and its references. Reasonable requests for access to the codes should be directed to J.V. or R.A.F. on behalf of the Osiris consortium.

References

  1. Gover, A. Superradiant and stimulated-superradiant emission in prebunched electron-beam radiators. I. Formulation. Phys. Rev. Spec. Top. Accel. Beams 8, 030701 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. O’Shea, P. G. & Freund, H. P. Free-electron lasers: status and applications. Science 292, 1853 (2001).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Tajima, T. & Dawson, J. M. Laser electron accelerator. Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 267 (1979).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Chen, P. et al. Acceleration of electrons by the interaction of a bunched electron beam with a plasma. Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 693 (1985).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Rousse, A. et al. Production of a keV X-ray beam from synchrotron radiation in relativistic laser–plasma interaction. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 135005 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kneip, S. et al. Bright spatially coherent synchrotron X-rays from a table-top source. Nat. Phys. 6, 980 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Cole, J. M. et al. Laser-wakefield accelerators as hard X-ray sources for 3D medical imaging of human bone. Sci. Rep. 5, 13244 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wood, J. C. et al. Ultrafast imaging of laser driven shock waves using betatron X-rays from a laser wakefield accelerator. Sci. Rep. 8, 11010 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. He, Z.-H. et al. Capturing structural dynamics in crystalline silicon using chirped electrons from a laser wakefield accelerator. Sci. Rep. 6, 36224 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Cole, J. M. et al. Experimental evidence of radiation reaction in the collision of a high-intensity laser pulse with a laser-wakefield accelerated electron beam. Phys. Rev. X 8, 011020 (2018).

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. Albert, F. et al. LWFA based light sources: potential applications and requirements. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 56, 084015 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Wang, W. T. et al. High-brightness high-energy electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator via energy chirp control. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 124801 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Wang, W. et al. Free-electron lasing at 27 nanometres based on a laser wakefield accelerator. Nature 595, 516 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Labat, M. et al. Seeded free-electron laser driven by a compact laser plasma accelerator. Nat. Photonics 16, 150–156 (2023).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Pompili, R. et al. Free-electron lasing with compact beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator. Nature 605, 659–662 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Davoine, X. et al. Ion-channel laser growth rate and beam quality requirements. J. Plasma Phys. 84, 905840304 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Vieira, J. et al. Generalized superradiance for producing broadband coherent radiation with transversely modulated arbitrarily diluted bunches. Nat. Phys. 17, 99–104 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Sagdeev, R. Z. and Galeev, A. A. Nonlinear Plasma Theory (W. A. Benjamin Inc., 1969).

  19. Silva, L., Bingham, R., Dawson, J. M. & Mori, W. B. Ponderomotive force of quasiparticles in a plasma. Phys. Rev. E 59, 2273–2280 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Xu, J. et al. Dynamics of electron injection in a laser-wakefield accelerator. Phys. Plasmas 24, 083106 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Wenz, J. et al. Dual-energy electron beams from a compact laser-driven accelerator. Nat. Photonics 13, 263 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Fedenev, A. et al. Applications of a broadband electron-beam pumped XUV radiation source. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 37, 1586 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Cline, B., Delahunty, I. & Xie, J. Nanoparticles to mediate X-ray-induced photodynamic therapy and Cherenkov radiation photodynamic therapy. WIREs Nanomed. Nanobiotechnol. 11, e1541 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Jackson J. D. Classical Electrodynamics 3rd edn (John Wiley & Sons, 1999).

  25. Fonseca, R. A. et al. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 2331 (Springer, 2002).

  26. Fonseca, R. A. et al. Exploiting multi-scale parallelism for large scale numerical modelling of laser wakefield accelerators. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 55, 124011 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Pardal, M. et al. RaDiO: An efficient spatiotemporal radiation diagnostic for particle-in-cell code. Comp. Phys. Commun. 285, 108634 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Pukhov, A. & Meyer-ter-Vehn, J. Laser wake field acceleration: the highly non-linear broken-wave regime. Appl. Phys. B 74, 355–361 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Lu, W. et al. Nonlinear theory for relativistic plasma wakefields in the blowout regime. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 165002 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Burza, M. et al. Laser wakefield acceleration using wire produced double density ramps. Phys. Rev. Spec. Top. Accel. Beams 16, 011301 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Geddes, C. G. R. et al. Plasma-density-gradient injection of low absolute-momentum-spread electron bunches. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 215004 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. Gonsalves, A. J. et al. Tunable laser plasma accelerator based on longitudinal density tailoring. Nat. Phys. 7, 862–866 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Tooley, M. P. et al. Towards attosecond high-energy electron bunches: controlling self-injection in laser-wakefield accelerators through plasma-density modulation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 044801 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  34. Suk, H. et al. Plasma electron trapping and acceleration in a plasma wake field using a density transition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 1011 (2001).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  35. de la Ossa, A. M. et al. Optimizing density down-ramp injection for beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerators. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 20, 091301 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  36. Xu, X. L. et al. High quality electron bunch generation using a longitudinal density-tailored plasma-based accelerator in the three-dimensional blowout regime. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 20, 111303 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  37. Zhang, C. et al. Effect of fluctuations in the down ramp plasma source profile on the emittance and current profile of the self-injected beam in a plasma wakefield accelerator. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 22, 111301 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  38. Couperus Cabadag, J. P. et al. Gas-dynamic density downramp injection in a beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator. Phys. Rev. Res. 3, L042005 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Xu, X., Li, F., Tsung, F. S. et al. Generation of ultrahigh-brightness pre-bunched beams from a plasma cathode for X-ray free-electron lasers. Nat. Commun. 13, 3364 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  40. Zhang, C. et al. Ionization induced plasma grating and its applications in strong-field ionization measurements. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 63, 095011 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  41. Layer, B. D. et al. Ultrahigh-intensity optical slow-wave structure. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 035001 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  42. Layer, B. D. et al. Periodic index-modulated plasma waveguide. Optics Express 17, 4263 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  43. Froula, D. H. et al. Spatiotemporal control of laser intensity. Nat. Photonics 12, 262–265 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  44. Sainte-Marie, A., Gobert, O. & Quéré, F. Controlling the velocity of ultrashort light pulses in vacuum through spatio-temporal couplings. Optica 4, 1298–1304 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  45. Palastro, J. P. et al. Dephasingless laser wakefield acceleration. Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 159902 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  46. Caizergues, C., Smartsev, S., Malka, V. & Thaury, C. Phase-locked laser-wakefield electron acceleration. Nat. Photonics 14, 475–479 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Pierce, J. R. et al. Arbitrarily structured laser pulses. Phys. Rev. Res. 5, 013085 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Ramsey, D. et al. Vacuum acceleration of electrons in a dynamic laser pulse. Phys. Rev. E 102, 043207 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  49. Shi, X. et al. Superlight inverse Doppler effect. Nat. Phys. 14, 1001 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge very fruitful interactions and discussions with L. Silva, R. Bingham, R. Trines and Z. Najmudin. We acknowledge use of the Marenostrum (Spain) and LUMI (Finland) supercomputers through PRACE/EuroHPC awards. Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal, supports the work of B.M. (Grant No. PD/BD/150409/2019) and M.P. (Grant No. PD/BD/150411/2019). The European Union EuPRAXIA Preparatory Phase Project (Grant No. 653782) supports the work of J.V. and R.A.F. The Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (Award No. DE-SC00215057), the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (Award No. DE-NA0003856), the University of Rochester and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority support the work of D.R., K.W. and J.P.P. The National Science Foundation (Award No. 2108970) and Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (Award No. DE-NA0004131) supports the work of J.R.P. and W.B.M.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    B. Malaca, M. Pardal, R. A. Fonseca & J. Vieira

  2. University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Rochester, NY, USA

    D. Ramsey, K. Weichman & J. P. Palastro

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    J. R. Pierce & W. B. Mori

  4. Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée, ENSTA Paris, CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France

    I. A. Andriyash

  5. DCTI/ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    R. A. Fonseca

Authors
  1. B. Malaca
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Pardal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. D. Ramsey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. J. R. Pierce
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. K. Weichman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. I. A. Andriyash
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. W. B. Mori
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. J. P. Palastro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. R. A. Fonseca
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. J. Vieira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

B.M. and J.V. developed the concept and the corresponding theory. M.P., J.V. and R.A.F. developed the main simulation codes and the numerical tools. B.M. performed the simulations and analysed the data. B.M., J.V. and J.P.P. wrote the manuscript and Supplementary Information with inputs from all authors. All authors provided critical feedback and conceptual expertise for the overall idea.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to B. Malaca or J. Vieira.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Photonics thanks James Rosenzweig and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–8 and discussion.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Malaca, B., Pardal, M., Ramsey, D. et al. Coherence and superradiance from a plasma-based quasiparticle accelerator. Nat. Photon. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01311-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01311-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing