Thanks to a financial support from the GAMA2 programme of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, Sebastian Lorenz from ELI Beamlines finished the development of the dual-stage gas target for laser-plasma acceleration last year. Its most important feature is the ability to create a suitable gas density profile for the controlled injection of electrons into the accelerator phase of the accelerator while maintaining a very low leakage of waste gas into the vacuum chamber.
The device serves as a gas target for stable laser plasma electron acceleration (LWFA). It combines the technologies of supersonic micro nozzle and a gas cell. An independent gas flow control at each stage provides a highly flexible control of injection and acceleration processes. The target is also optimized for low gas load into the vacum chamber.
The gas target should be implemented as a crucial component in the next generation of compact and versatile electron accelerators that are driven by laser. The laser driven electron accelerators are applicable in many fields of science (e.g. QED experiments, generation of secondary sources, and irradiation of biomaterials), medicine (e. g. cancer treatment) and military (e.g. non-destructive scanning and tests).
The industrial design of the component is already complete. It can be machined and then implemented in an accelerator system. A patent application has been already submitted in the Czech Republic and there are plans to extend protection to other countries.
„I was able to complete, test and start my invention commercially. This gas target is innovative, cheap to manufacture, and I believe it could be widely used especially in LWFA electron accelerators, ”says Sebastian Lorenz, a research assistant in the Department of Radiation Physics and Electron Acceleration at ELI Beamlines.
Many new LWFA accelerators are currently being built and innovated. The demand for a new generation of advanced gas targets is therefore relatively high, and specific research institutions have already shown interest in testing of the product.
Contact
Miroslava Príbišová, Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer, Miroslava.Pribisova@eli-beams.eu
