Imaging of small-scale dynamic phenomena with a laser-wakefield acceleration driven x-ray source*

Laser wakefield accelerators are a promising alternative for generation high-brightness and coherent x-rays at a fraction of the cost and facility size of conventional synchroton-like electron accelerators. The radiation source is mediated by the oscillatory motion of electrons inside the plasma wakefield, also known as betatron oscillations. Characteristics of the x-ray source include low beam divergence (few miliradians), ultrafast femtosecond pulse duration, and micrometer size resolution. These properties make a wakefield accelerator radiation source an excellent candidate for imaging of ultrafast events with high-temporal and high-spatial resolution. In this work we present imaging of small scale dynamic phenomena using a betatron x-ray source generated by the interaction of a high-intensity laser pulse with a gas cell. Some of the preliminary results of interest include properties of the betatron spectrum and imaging resolution.