Design considerations for a Density-Channel-Guided laser wake-field accelerator
Abstract
A self-modulated laser wake-field accelerator configuration in which the laser pulse is optically guided by a plasma density channel is considered. Preliminary experiments on the generation of a plasma channel by a slow capillary discharge are described. It is shown that homogeneous channels with length L sub channel much greater than lambda p can be produced, where lambda sub p is the plasma wavelength. Key issues are addressed, including phase detuning between the accelerated electron bunch and the wake field, beam-plasma and laser-plasma instabilities, and the effect of density variations that might occur over the length of the plasma channel. Numerical simulations, using present experimental parameters, show accelerating gradients in excess of 50 GV/m.
- Publication:
-
Naval Research Lab. Report
- Pub Date:
- April 1995
- Bibcode:
- 1995nrl..reptR....K
- Keywords:
-
- Electron Bunching;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Plasma Density;
- Plasmas (Physics);
- Pulsed Lasers;
- Flow Distribution;
- Numerical Analysis;
- Wakes;
- Lasers and Masers