Capillary channels of cm-length and at plasma density low compared to gas jets are promising setups for low noise laser wakefield acceleration. Computationally, however, the large discrepancy of the length scales of the plasma and the laser are a big challenge. Methods are therefore sought that relax the need to concurrently resolve both length scales. Average methods, which split the electromagneticfield into a fast and a slowly varying part, allow to relax the constraint to resolve the laser wavelength. Such an envelope model is currently being incorporated into the VORPAL plasma simulation code. Simulation results for benchmark cases and for laser pulse propagation in a cm-scale channel are presented.

High quality electron beams with hundreds of picoCoulombs of charge inpercent energy spread above 80 MeV were produced for the first time in high gradient laser wakefield accelerators by guiding the drive laser pulse.

Electron beams with hundreds of picoCoulombs of charge in percent energy spread at above 80 MeV, and with few milliradian divergence, have been produced for the first time in a high gradient laser wakefield accelerator by guiding the drive laser pulse. Channels formed by hydrodynamic shock were used to guide acceleration relevant laser intensities of at least 1E18W/cm2 at the guide output over more than 10 Rayleigh lengths at LBNL's l'OASIS facility (10TW, 2E19W/cm2). The pondermotive force of the laser pulse drove an intense plasma wave, producing acceleration gradients on the order of 100 GV/m. Electrons were trapped from the background plasma and accelerated. By extending the acceleration length using the guiding channel, the energy of the electron beam was greatly increased, and bunches of small energy spread and low emittance were formed. Experiments varying gas jet length as well assimulations indicate that the high quality beams were formed when beam loading turned off injection after an initial load, producing an isolated bunch, and when that bunch was subsequently accelerated to the dephasing length at which point it rotated in phase space to produce low energy spread.

Experiments at the LOASIS laboratory of LBNL have demonstrated production of 100 MeV to 1 GeV electron bunches with low energy spread and low divergence from laser wakefield acceleration. The radiation pressure of a 10 TW laser pulse, guided over 10 diffraction ranges by a few-mm long plasma density channel, was used to drive an intense plasma wave (wakefield), producing electron bunches with energies on the order of 100 MeV and acceleration gradients on the order of 100 GV/m. Beam energy was increased from 100 MeV to 1 GeV by using a few-cm long guiding channel at lower density, driven by a 40 TW laser, demonstrating the anticipated scaling to higher beam energies. Particle simulations indicate that the low energy spread beams were produced from self-trapped electrons through the interplay of trapping, loading, and dephasing. Other experiments and simulations are also underway to control injection of particles into the wake, and hence improve beam quality and stability further.

An optical injection scheme for a laser-plasma based accelerator which employs a non-collinear counter-propagating laser beam to push background electrons in the focusing and acceleration phase via ponderomotive beat with the trailing part of the wakefield driver pulse is discussed. Preliminary experiments were performed using a drive beam of a_0 = 2.6 and colliding beam of a_1 = 0.8 both focused on the middle of a 200 mu m slit jet backed with 20 bar, which provided ~; 260 mu m long gas plume. The enhancement in the total charge by the colliding pulse was observed with sharp dependence on the delay time of the colliding beam. Enhancement of the neutron yield was also measured, which suggests a generation of electrons above 10 MeV.

Experiments at the LOASIS laboratory of LBNL recently demonstrated production of 100 MeV electron beams with low energy spread and low divergence from laser wakefield acceleration. The radiation pressure of a 10 TW laser pulse guided over 10 diffraction ranges by a plasma density channel was used to drive an intense plasma wave (wakefield), producing acceleration gradients on the order of 100 GV/m in a mm-scale channel. Beam energy has now been increased from 100 to 1000 MeV by using a cm-scale guiding channel at lower density, driven by a 40 TW laser, demonstrating the anticipated scaling to higher beam energies. Particle simulations indicate that the low energy spread beams were produced from self trapped electrons through the interplay of trapping, loading, and dephasing. Other experiments and simulations are also underway to control injection of particles into the wake, and hence improve beam quality and stability further.