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Simulations of efficient laser wakefield accelerators from 1 to 100GeV

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2012

M. TZOUFRAS ,
C. HUANG ,
J. H. COOLEY ,
F. S. TSUNG ,
J. VIEIRA  and
W. B. MORI
M. TZOUFRAS
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA (mtzouf@ucla.edu)
C. HUANG
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
J. H. COOLEY
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
F. S. TSUNG
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
J. VIEIRA
Affiliation:
GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
W. B. MORI
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA (mtzouf@ucla.edu) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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Abstract

Optimization of laser wakefield acceleration involves understanding and control of the laser evolution in tenuous plasmas, the response of the plasma medium, and its effect on the accelerating particles. We explore these phenomena in the weakly nonlinear regime, in which the laser power is similar to the critical power for self-focusing. Using Particle-In-Cell simulations with the code QuickPIC, we demonstrate that a laser pulse can remain focused in a plasma channel for hundreds of Rayleigh lengths and efficiently accelerate a high-quality electron beam to 100GeV (25GeV) in a single stage with average gradient 3.6GV/m (7.2GV/m).

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