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Wim Leemans
Head, LOASIS Program
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Talk Title: Accelerating in the Future with Laser-Plasma Accelerators

Abstract
More than twenty five years ago, a new method was proposed for the acceleration of electrons to high energies using lasers. The simplest implementation of a so-called laser wakefield accelerator involves sending an intense laser pulse through a gas to ionize it and form a plasma of dissociated electrons and ions. The radiation pressure of the laser pushes the plasma electrons aside, creating a density modulation, or ‘wake.’ This changing electron density can result in fields that accelerate particles thousands of times more strongly than in conventional machines, accelerating electrons to high energies in short distances. The compactness of these accelerators would allow higher energies for the frontiers of fundamental physics and make clinical and laboratory applications of accelerators practical. In work that brings the promise of laser-driven particle accelerators dramatically closer to reality, we have produced high-quality GeV electron beams in a plasma channel based accelerating structure akin to an optical fiber of only a few centimeters long. Recent progress will be presented, including the generation of intense THz and x-ray radiation. Applications for such accelerators as drivers for future light sources and high energy physics particle colliders will be described, including a discussion on the challenges in laser technology to drive these accelerators.

Biographical Sketch
Dr. Leemans obtained an electrical engineering/applied physics degree from the “Vrije Universiteit Brussel,” Belgium in “85 , and the MD and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering with emphasis on plasma physics, in ’87 and ’91 respectively, from UCLS. He received the ’92 American Physical Society Simon Ramo award for outstanding doctoral thesis research work in plasma physics. In ’91 he joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), as a Staff Scientist and, in ’94, started the LOASIS group in the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division. He is also an Adjunct Professor in physics at the University of Nevada, Reno. His current research interests are in laser based advanced accelerator concepts for electrons and ions, ultra-short x-ray pulse and THz generation and the interaction of electron beams with plasmas. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the current Chair of the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) Panel on Advanced and Novel Accelerators, the co-recipient of the 1996 Klaus Halbach Award for X-ray Instrumentation, the recipient of the 2005 USPAS Prize for Achievement in Accelerator Physics and Technology and the co-recipient of a 2005 and 2006 Outstanding Performance Award at LBNL.

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