Plasma based synchrotron radiation sources

Plasma waves are now well studied as sources of large accelerating fields for next generation particle accelerators. Using laser driven plasma waves, it is now possible to routinely accelerate particles to beyond GeV energies in the laboratory. Such beams are of great interest because they will radiate strongly and find common use in synchrotron and free-electron laser laboratories to produce high quality beams of radiation particularly x-rays. In this project, we will consider the use of the same structures used to accelerate particles in laser wakefield accelerators, as radiation sources. These structures have equally large focussing forces which can make relativistic electrons undulate as they traverse through the plasma in much the same way that they move in a magnetic undulator. The project will investigate the motion of charged particles in these high field plasma undulators through both experiment and simulation. We will particularly be interested in novel situations where the undulation of a laser wakefield beam can lead to narrow energy spread radiation (the undulator regime).Zulfikar to input