Experimental platform for dephasingless laser wakefield acceleration studies*

Traditional laser wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) are limited in their performance by dephasing. Via spatiotemporal shaping of a laser pulse to produce an ultrafast flying focus [1,2], the accelerating phase of a LWFA can propagate through a plasma at any velocity; this overcomes dephasing. Recent simulations [3] have shown that in the bubble regime, a dephasingless LWFA driven by an ultrafast flying focus using a 6.2-J laser pulse can accelerate 25 pC of injected charge over 20 dephasing lengths (1.3 cm) to a maximum energy of 2.1 GeV. The work presented here describes the activation of a platform to study dephasingless laser wakefield acceleration (DLWFA) using the Multi-Terawatt (MTW) and Multi-Terawatt Optical Parametric Amplifier Line (MTW-OPAL) laser systems. Initial experimental results are presented.