The Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center is a laser facility dedicated for laser plasma acceleration (LPA) research. The PW facility provides high quality focused laser pulses in the range of 10¹⁹ W/cm² intensity with controllable spatial distribution within the typical focus size of ~50 μm by a deformable mirror, exceptional beam pointing, shot-to-shot energy, intensity and pulse duration stability for high precision LPA experiments [1]. The thoroughly characterized and monitored femtosecond laser pulses are delivered into a radiation shielded target room for laser-plasma-driven electron and ion acceleration experiments, including the use of gas-jet and capillary-discharge-based LPAs, and thin-foil target studies. Highlights of recent results [2], and plans for gradual opening up the available resources for a broader user community in the recently established collaborative framework of the LaserNetUS will also be described.

[1] K. Nakamura et al., IEEE J. QE, 53, 1200121 (2017).
[2] A.J. Gonsalves et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 122, 084801 (2019).