Muons produced by the Bethe-Heitler process from laser wakefield accelerated electrons interacting with high Z materials
have velocities close to the laser wakefield. It is possible to accelerate those muons with laser wakefield directly.
Therefore for the first time we propose an all-optical “Generator and Booster” scheme to accelerate the produced muons
by another laser wakefield to supply a prompt, compact, low cost and controllable muon source in laser laboratories. The
trapping and acceleration of muons are analyzed by one-dimensional analytic model and verified by two-dimensional
particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. It is shown that muons can be trapped in a broad energy range and accelerated to
higher energy than that of electrons for longer dephasing length. We further extrapolate the dependence of the maximum
acceleration energy of muons with the laser wakefield relativistic factor γ and the relevant initial energy E0. It is shown
that a maximum energy up to 15.2 GeV is promising with γ = 46 and E0 = 1.45 GeV on the existing short pulse laser
facilities.
Zhang Feng, Deng Zhigang, Shan Lianqiang, Zhang Zhimeng, Bi Bi, Liu Dongxiao, wang Weiwu, Yuan Zongqiang, Tian Chao, Yang Siqiang, zhang Bo, Gu Yuqiu. All-optical μ- acceleration in the laser wakefield[J]. High Power Laser Science and Engineering, , (): .
