Research and applications at BELLA Center - Jan 2024

Title: Research and applications of laser plasma accelerators at the BELLA Center

Speakers: Sam Barber, Lieselotte Obst-Huebl and Qiang Chen; Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA)

Host: Antoine Islegen-Wojdyla

Date and time: Monday, February 5th, 2024; 2–3pm

Location: Building 6 Rm 2202; zoom: link (LBNL staff only)

Description: At the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center, we are focused on the development and application of laser plasma accelerators (LPAs), which, compared to conventional rf-based accelerators, offer a nearly 1000 to 10,000-fold increase in maximum acceleration gradient. Such an increase in accelerating gradient opens the door for dramatic reduction in size and scale of accelerator-based applications. In this talk, we will discuss some of the key experimental research topics being pursued, which include compact light sources, high energy physics and medical applications. 

About the speakers:

Dr. Sam Barber is a research scientist at the BELLA Center where he works on producing high brightness electron beams for the advancement and development of compact FELs.

Dr. Lieselotte Obst-Huebl is a research scientist at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center where she is the lead for high energy density science experiments. To that end she conducts experiments and supports user campaigns at the BELLA PW laser system. Dr. Obst-Huebl received her PhD in Physics at Technische Universität Dresden. Her expertise lies in PW laser-matter interactions, including laser-proton acceleration, targetry, plasma mirrors, diagnostics, and applications.

Dr. Qiang Chen is a research scientist at the BELLA center, leading the hundred terawatt Thomson (HTT) line. He works on the development of high energy photon sources and their applications to high energy density physics.

About BELLA: the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center focuses on the development and application of laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs). LPAs produce ultrahigh accelerating fields (1-100 GV/m) and may provide a compact technology for a variety of applications that include accelerators for high energy physics and drivers for high energy photon sources.

Recording