Electron bunch injection at an angle into a laser wakefield

Simulation of laser wakefield acceleration of an ultrashort electron bunch.

The dynamics of the acceleration of a short electron bunch in a strong plasma wave excited by a laser pulse in a plasma channel is studied both analytically and numerically in slab geometry. In our simulations, a fully nonlinear, relativistic hydrodynamic description for the plasma wave is combined with particle-in-cell methods for the description of the bunch. Collective self-interactions with...

Laser injection of ultrashort electron pulses into Wakefield plasma waves.

A novel laser-plasma-based source of relativistic electrons is described. It involves a combination of orthogonally directed laser beams, which are focused in a plasma. One beam excites a wakefield electron plasma wave. Another locally alters the trajectory of some of the electrons in such a way that they can be accelerated and trapped by the wave. With currently available table-top terawatt la...

Trapping, compression, and acceleration of an electron bunch in the nonlinear laser wakefield.

A scheme of laser wakefield acceleration, when a relatively rare and long bunch of nonrelativistic or weakly relativistic electrons is initially in front of the laser pulse, is suggested and considered. The motion of test electrons is studied both in the one-dimensional (1D) case (1D wakefield) and in the case of three-dimensional laser wakefield excited in a plasma channel. It is shown that fo...

An All Optical Laser Wakefield Electron Injector

Electron Rephasing in a Laser-Wakefield Accelerator.

An important limit for energy gain in laser-plasma wakefield accelerators is the dephasing length, after which the electron beam reaches the decelerating region of the wakefield and starts to decelerate. Here, we propose to manipulate the phase of the electron beam in the wakefield, in order to bring the beam back into the accelerating region, hence increasing the final beam energy. This rephas...