Laboratories around the world are planning petawatt laser driven experiments. The Texas petawatt laser offers the ability to demonstrate laser wake field acceleration (LWFA) in a unique regime with pulse duration (similar ...

The Texas Petawatt Laser is operational with experimental campaigns executed in both F/40 and F3 target chambers. Recent improvements have resulted in intensities of >2x10(21) W/cm(2) on target. Experimental highlights ...

Electron self-injection into a laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) driven by the Texas Petawatt (TPW) laser is reported at plasma densities 1.7 - 6.2 x 10(17) cm(-3). Energy and charge of the electron beam, ranging from 0.5 GeV ...