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Plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) is a novel acceleration technique withpromising prospects for both particle colliders and light sources. However,PWFA research has so far been limited to a few large-scale acceleratorfacilities world-wide. Here, we present first results on plasma wakefieldgeneration using electron beams accelerated with a 100-TW-class Ti:Sa laser.Due to their ultrashort duration and high charge density, the laser-acceleratedelectron bunches are suitable to drive plasma waves at electron densities inthe order of $10^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$. We capture the beam-induced plasma dynamicswith femtosecond resolution using few-cycle optical probing and, in addition tothe plasma wave itself, we observe a distinctive transverse ion motion in itstrail. This previously unobserved phenomenon can be explained by theponderomotive force of the plasma wave acting on the ions, resulting in amodulation of the plasma density over many picoseconds. Due to the scaling lawsof plasma wakefield generation, results obtained at high plasma density usinghigh-current laser-accelerated electron beams can be readily scaled tolow-density systems. Laser-driven PWFA experiments can thus act as miniaturemodels for their larger, conventional counterparts. Furthermore, our resultspave the way towards a novel generation of laser-driven PWFA, which canpotentially provide ultra-low emittance beams within a compact setup.

Direct observation of plasma waves and dynamics induced by laser-accelerated electron beams