High intensity laser guiding in plasma waveguides created by slow capillary discharge

Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) has emerged as a promising concept for the next generation of high energy electron accelerators. To attain highest possible particle energies in this acceleration scheme, high intensity laser beam must be maintained over distances much longer that the Rayleigh length. Therefore laser guiding is necessary to counteract the diffraction induced divergence of the beam.
For this, a plasma channel is created inside a capillary via the concept of slow capillary discharge and characterized using an interferometric method. It is shown that the plasma channel has a refractive index profile suitable for laser guiding. As the first step, the pressure range and the time window in which guiding can occur are determined by guidance of a He-Ne laser. With the gained knowledge, laser guiding capabilities of a pulse Ti:Sa laser are evaluated.
The results show a broad, easy to realize parameter window for pressure and time in which high laser transmission of above 75% are achieved.