Laser Plasma Accelerators: Manipulating relativistic electrons with intense lasers

Laser-plasma-based wakefield accelerators are changing the scientific landscape bringing on one side new hopes for emerging applications in medicine and industry, and on the other side for probing ultra-fast phenomena. Many of these applications critically require the precise characterization of the accelerated electron bunch as well as the plasma wakefield that largely affects the bunch’s quality. Advanced diagnostics of such highly transient, microscopic bunch and field structures, however, remains very challenging.

After introducing the context and the physical processes involved in plasma accelerators and relied on our ability to manipulate relativistic electrons with intense laser, I will report on recent major results obtained at the Weizmann Institute of Science that demonstrate for the first time the real-time visualization of laser-driven nonlinear relativistic plasma wave, its transition to electron-driven wakefield and the femtosecond microscopy of relativistic electron bunch. 

It will be followed by a short review of their applications including the status of our EIC project ebeam4therapy before discussing of their perspectives for Science and Society.