Tabletop laser-plasma electron accelerators: Experimental designs, acceleration mechanisms and some applications

We report the results of experimental and computational studies on the formation of electron beams by ultrashort terawatt laser pulses. Various acceleration regimes—direct laser acceleration (DLA), laser wake field acceleration (LWFA), and hybrid variants – are discussed. A possibility of controlling the processes occurring during such interactions with an additional nanosecond laser pulse is demonstrated: formation of a plasma with the required density and profile, change in the electron beam emission direction, and improvement of the beam emittance. Possible applications of such tabletop accelerators in the study of photonuclear processes, for the generation of unipolar pulses of extreme amplitude in the terahertz range of the spectrum, etc., are discussed.