Present state of the development of a laser plasma cathode at Nuclear Professional School, the University of Tokyo

We are developing a laser plasma cathode, which is expected to enable us to realize a compact high-quality electron accelerator. A quasi-monoenergetic electron spectrum can be generated through ultraintense laser-plasma interaction. We investigated the correlation between the laser-plasma interaction and the generated electron properties via single shot measurement. We found that a preformed laser channel plays an important role to achieve the monoenergetic spectrum. We also carried out a bunch duration measurement for electron beams generated from a laser plasma cathode using a coherent transition radiation method. The estimated bunch duration was 250 fs (FWHM). (author)