Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

An analysis of the interaction between a pulsed, supersonic microjet and an intersecting gas-filled capillary is presented, which enables a direct measurement of the pressure evolution inside the nozzle of the microjet. Plasma-emission spectroscopy was used to resolve, on a sub-microsecond timescale, the build-up and decay of pressure in the nozzle, which are shown to be correlated to the volume of the plenum supplying the nozzle and to the nozzle-throat size, respectively. The microjet, which was integrated with a capillary-discharge waveguide in a sapphire structure, was used to create a small, tunable region of high density gas within a centimeter-scale plateau of lower-density for use in a laser-plasma accelerator. The resultant longitudinally structured gas-density profile has been used to provide control of electron trapping and acceleration, but its evolution has not previously been directly quantified. The results presented here pave the way for improved control of laser-plasma accelerators and are also relevant to applications such as miniature satellites and lab-on-a-chip where precise knowledge of microjet pressure evolution is critical.