Multi-GeV Electron Bunches from an All-Optical Laser Wakefield Accelerator

We present the first demonstration of multi-GeV laser wakefield acceleration in a fully optically formed plasma waveguide, with an acceleration gradient as high as 25 GeV=m. The guide was formed via selfwaveguiding of <15 J, 45 fs (< 300 TW) pulses over 20 cm in a low-density hydrogen gas jet, with accelerated electron bunches driven up to 5 GeV in quasimonoenergetic peaks of relative energy width as narrow as 15%, with divergence down to 1 mrad and charge up to tens of picocoulombs. Energy gain is inversely correlated with on-axis waveguide density in the range N e0 1.3-3.2 10 17 cm -3 . We find that shot-to-shot stability of bunch spectra and charge are strongly dependent on the pointing of the injected laser pulse and gas jet uniformity. We also observe evidence of pump depletion-induced dephasing, a consequence of the long optical guiding distance.