Narrow bandwidth Laser-Plasma Accelerator driven Thomson photon source development*

Compact, high-quality photon sources at MeV energies for nuclear nonproliferation and other applications can be provided by Thomson scattering of a laser from the electron beam of a Laser-Plasma Accelerator (LPA).   Simulations indicate that high flux with narrow energy spread can be achieved via control of the LPA along with the scattering laser pulse shape and laser guiding, and that undesired background bremsstrahlung can be mitigated by plasma based deceleration of the electron beam after photon production. Progress of experiments to combine these elements will be presented, along with initial operations.  The path from these experiments towards a compact high performance photon source will be discussed.