Pseudoresonant laser Wakefield acceleration driven by 10.6-/spl mu/m laser light

This work describes an experiment to demonstrate, for the first time, laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA), driven by 10.6-/spl mu/m light from a CO/sub 2/ laser. This experiment is also noteworthy because it will operate in a pseudoresonant LWFA regime, in which the laser-pulse-length is too long for resonant LWFA, but too short for self-modulated LWFA. Nonetheless, high acceleration gradients are still possible. This experiment builds upon an earlier experiment called staged electron laser acceleration (STELLA), where efficient trapping and monoenergetic laser acceleration of electrons were demonstrated using inverse free electron lasers. The aim is to apply the STELLA approach of laser-driven microbunch formation followed by laser-driven trapping and acceleration to LWFA. These capabilities are important for a practical electron linear accelerator based upon LWFA.