GeV laser acceleration research at JAERI-APR

Recent experiments on ultrahigh field particle acceleration driven by ultraintense laser pulses in plasmas have succeeded in electron acceleration up to the order of 100 MeV with large energy spreads. The next step of laser acceleration research has been focused on the injection of ultrashort electron bunches into a correct acceleration phase of laser wakefields and on the optical guiding of ultraintense ultrashort laser pulses in underdense plasmas. A proposal of laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) experiments has been presented to accomplish high energy gains of the order of GeV with high quality electron beam injection. The recent status of the project proceeded at JAERI-APR is reported on the developments of high quality electron beam injectors and the capillary plasma waveguide for optical guiding of ultrashort intense laser pulses