Betatron radiation generated by relativistic electrons during their wiggling motion in an ion channel is a well-studied source of x-ray photons. Due to the highly collimated emission such compact laser-driven sources have attracted significant attention in various laser or plasma-based applications, but the spectral intensity is still too low. The high repetition rate is also demanded, thus the pulse energy is strongly limited. Here, based on theory and computer simulations, we present a different method to enhance the radiation power by increasing the number of betatron oscillations along the acceleration path of electrons. A stronger wiggling of electrons is achieved by using clusterized gas targets, which allows one to achieve three orders of magnitude higher x-ray yield than in optimized uniform gas target with similar average electron density.

Original languageEnglish
Article number053205
Number of pages6
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume102
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Nov 2020

    Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Statistics and Probability

    Research areas

  • LASER, BEAMS

ID: 71736081