High charge plasma electron bunches from two collinear laser pulses

Abstract: An optical injection scheme into the laser wakefield accelerator by preceding injection pulse is investigated by means of 3D numerical particle-in-cell simulations. Quasimonoenergetic hundred-pC electron bunches as short as 6 fs can be generated. Optimal beam separation distance is found at the intersection point of the injection beam bubble with the collection volume for transverse injection into the accelerator beam bubble. It approximately corresponds to the plasma wavelength. The main advantage of this scheme is the localized injection of high charge. This injection mechanism can be useful for applications such as ultrashort and relatively intense X-ray radiation sources such as a betatron radiation or Thomson backscattering, time-resolved electron diffraction or for seeding of further acceleration stages.