Overview

This dataset contains the numerical arrays and Jupyter notebooks used to generate Figures 1–6 of the associated Physical Review Research article. It combines longitudinally resolved experimental measurements of electron-beam and laser evolution with particle-in-cell simulation results for a channel-guided laser-plasma accelerator.

The data support comparisons of electron energy spectra, laser spectra and mode profiles, plasma-channel guiding, and simulated accelerator evolution as functions of plasma-channel length. They are intended to make the figure-level analysis reproducible and to support reuse of the experimental and simulation-derived quantities reported in the article.

Associated preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.25823

File structure

data/
  fig1_data.npz
  fig2_data.npz
  fig3_data.npz
  fig4_data.npz
  fig5_data.npz
  fig6_data.npz
notebooks/
  fig1_plot.ipynb
  fig2_plot.ipynb
  fig3_plot.ipynb
  fig4_plot.ipynb
  fig5_plot.ipynb
  fig6_plot.ipynb
README.md

Each figN_plot.ipynb notebook loads the corresponding data/figN_data.npz archive. Run the notebooks from the notebooks/ directory so that their relative paths can ../data/ resolve correctly.

Data files

The .npz files are standard NumPy compressed archives. Array names are descriptive and are listed by:

import numpy as np

with np.load("data/fig1_data.npz") as d:
    print(d.files)

Principal variables and units

• Channel or jet length (Lch, jet_length, or similar): centimeters.
• Electron energy or momentum axes and maximum-energy quantities: GeV or GeV/c, as labeled in the notebooks.
• Electron divergence or angle axes: milliradians.
• Charge-density quantities: pC/(GeV/c), or pC/mrad/(GeV/c) for two-dimensional spectrometer images, as labeled in the notebooks.
• Optical wavelength (wl, optical_wl, or redshift quantities): nanometers.
• Laser transverse coordinates and spot sizes: micrometers.
• Normalized laser amplitude (a0 or a): dimensionless.
• Image extents are stored in the same coordinate order expected by Matplotlib's imshow: [xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax].
• Arrays used only for plotting style or normalization, such asvmax_list, are in the corresponding plotted quantity's units or are dimensionless.

Consult the matching notebook for the exact interpretation, axis labels, selections, and transformations applied to each array.

Software requirements

• Python 3
• NumPy
• Matplotlib
• Jupyter Notebook or JupyterLab

No specialized or proprietary software is required to read the data or run the included plotting notebooks.

Reproducing the figures

1. Download and extract the dataset while preserving the data/ and notebooks/ directories.
2. Install the software listed above.
3. Start Jupyter from the notebooks/ directory.
4. Open and run fig1_plot.ipynb through fig6_plot.ipynb.

The notebooks write PNG figure files into the notebooks/ directory. Some article figures are split into multiple output images or produce supplementary diagnostic plots:

• Figure 1 notebook: fig1a.png, fig1ab.png, and fig1cd.png.
• Figure 2 notebook: fig2a.png, fig2b.png, and fig2b_averaged.png.
• Figure 3 notebook: fig3.png.
• Figure 4 notebook: fig4.png.
• Figure 5 notebook: one PNG for each included shot.
• Figure 6 notebook: fig6.png.

Methods and provenance

Experiments were performed with the BELLA petawatt laser and accelerator system using a hydrodynamic optically field-ionized plasma channel. The deposited experimental data include laser mode and spectral diagnostics and electron spectrometer measurements acquired as a function of plasma-channel length. The deposited simulation results were generated with the quasi-static mode of the ponderomotive, cylindrical particle-in-cell code INF&RNO, which is being integrated into the Beam, Plasma & Accelerator Simulation Toolkit (BLAST). The associated article provides the full experimental configuration, diagnostic procedures, simulation inputs, data selections, and uncertainty analysis.

No human-subject data, personal identifiers, or sensitive location data are included.

Funding and facilities

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics, U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. It used facilities at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) under award HEP-ERCAP0035612.

License

The data deposited in Dryad are released under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) Public Domain Dedication, consistent with Dryad's data-publication terms.

Associated works and archive

Accepted article: https://doi.org/10.1103/qqcv-f29q

Downloadable archive: revealing-laser-electron-beam-evolution-data.zip