Efficient acceleration of high-charge quasi-monoenergetic electron bunches in the blow-out regime using a few TW mid-infrared laser pulses

Abstract: Efficient production of high-charge electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration using a mid-infrared (MIR) laser pulse is investigated by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Only a 2.5 TW (100 mJ, 40 fs) MIR laser pulse with a wavelength of 1.5 um can produce a quasi-monoenergetic electron (QME) bunch with a peak energy of 65 MeV in the blow-out regime. The simulation results are compared with those for the experiment showing the generation of 40-60 MeV QME bunches with more than 10^8 electrons using an 8 TW laser pulse with a wavelength of 0.8 um. The number of electrons in the QME bunch produced by a 1.5 um laser is 10 times higher than that produced by a 0.8 um laser, and is equivalent to 10^9. The conversion efficiency from the laser energy to the QEM bunch energy is more than 10%. Laser wakefield acceleration by a TW-class MIR laser pulse opens the door to generating a high-charge QME bunch with high efficiency.