Guiding of 400 TW laser pulses at the BELLA Center using hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels*

Laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) have large acceleration gradients, orders of magnitude greater than conventional accelerators. Plasma channels can guide high intensity laser pulses, increasing the acceleration length and final beam energy by maintaining the laser pulse intensity over distances greater than the diffraction length. Single stage acceleration to the 10 GeV level using the petawatt (PW) laser at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center requires plasma channels with density ~1E17/cc and matched spot size tens of micron. Hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized channels (HOFI) can meet these requirements. Recently, a second beamline was commissioned at the BELLA PW facility that allows for two independently adjustable high intensity laser pulses in one target chamber with up to ~40J total energy. We present guiding results with HOFI plasma channels formed using the BELLA PW second beamline.