Real-time characterisation of profiles of laser wakefield and electrons accelerated by few-cycle 1 kHz OCPA system

Laser Wakefield Accelerators (LWFA) allow substantial miniaturisation of radio-frequency synchrotrons, enable development of table-top X-ray and γ-photon beam sources and dramatically increase the access possibility of universities and research establishments to the advanced photon sources used in biomedical, physics and material science research [1]. The coherence and brightness of the secondary sources depend heavily on the LWFA gas target profile and energetic, spatial and temporal dispersion of the produced electron beam. The non-linear effects like self-focusing and pulse compression strongly affect the laser pulse intensity. Pre-chirping of the femtosecond pumping laser pulse and deformable mirror adaptive optical systems are used to optimise the properties of electron beam [2].