ETD

• delay mask
• electron acceleration
• laser
• multi-pulse
• oap
• parabola
• plasma
• pulse train
• ReMPI
• resonant
• wakefield

My PhD project is focused on the development of a novel optical system (the delay mask) to
generate a train of ultrashort laser pulses to be used in the ReMPI laser-plasma acceleration
scheme, proposed by the ILIL group in the context of the European infrastructure EuPRAXIA.
It aims to the acceleration of GeV-scale, high-quality electron bunches using existing 100 TWclass
high-power lasers, via the combination of multi-pulse resonant excitation and two-color
injection.
As a first step toward the experimental implementation of ReMPI, my PhD project tackles the
issue of the generation of trains of laser pulses starting by a single, high power laser pulse, to drive
resonant wakefield excitation in a plasma, reviewing existing optical methods and introducing a
recently proposed approach based on a delay mask. Tools developed to model and characterize
experimentally trains of ultrashort pulses generated with a delay mask are described in details in
my thesis. The simulation of the resonant excitation achieved by the pulse train I experimentally
characterized showed a clear experimental signature related to the resonant excitation condition.