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Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 5, 041301 (2002) [8 pages]

Computer simulations of a single-laser double-gas-jet wakefield accelerator concept

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R. G. Hemker, N. M. Hafz, and M. Uesaka
Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory, University of Tokyo, 22-2 Shirane-Shirakata, Tokai, Naka, Ibaraki, 319-1196 Japan

Received 10 July 2001; published 12 April 2002

We report in this paper on full scale 2D particle-in-cell simulations investigating laser wakefield acceleration. First we describe our findings of electron beam generation by a laser propagating through a single gas jet. Using realistic parameters which are relevant for the experimental setup in our laboratory we find that the electron beam resulting after the propagation of a 0.8 μm, 50 fs laser through a 1.5 mm gas jet has properties that would make it useful for further acceleration. Our simulations show that the electron beam is generated when the laser exits the gas jet, and the properties of the generated beam, especially its energy, depend only weakly on most properties of the gas jet. We therefore propose to use the first gas jet as a plasma cathode and then use a second gas jet placed immediately behind the first to provide additional acceleration. Our simulations of this proposed setup indicate the feasibility of this idea and also suggest ways to optimize the quality of the resulting beam.


©2002 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.5.041301
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.5.041301
PACS: 52.38.Kd, 52.65.Rr, 41.75.Jv, 52.65.-y

Supplemental Material

Video 1 [ QuickTime (9644 kB) | RealMedia (908 kB) | AVI (38769 kB) | MPEG (444 kB) | GIF (1671 kB) ]
Thumbnail of Video 1The video shows the development of the longitudinal phasespace density over time as the laser passes through two gasjets. The parameters for both gasjets in this video are wi  =  1.5  mm, Lgi  =  0.5  mm, and npi  =  7.07  ×  1018  cm-3. The distance between the gasjets is d  =  65  μm. The two important observations that can be made in the video are a) that trapping and acceleration of electrons in the first gasjet only occur after the laser started moving through the region of decreasing density b) that the electrons trapped in the first gasjet gain additional energy when the laser and the trailing trapped electrons pass through the second gasjet.
Video 2 [ RealMedia (926 kB) | QuickTime (9384 kB) | AVI (8122 kB) | MPEG (444 kB) | GIF (1655 kB) ]
Thumbnail of Video 2The video shows the development of the longitudinal phasespace density over time as the laser passes through two gasjets. The parameters for the first gasjet in this simulation are w1  =  1.5  mm, Lg1  =  0.5  mm, and np1  =  7.07  ×  1018cm-3. The parameters for the second gasjet are w2  =  1.5  mm, Lg2  =  0.5  mm, and np2  =  1.0  ×  1018cm-3. The distance between the gasjets is d  =  65  μm. The video clearly indicates that changes in the density of the second gasjet have a significant impact on the resulting electron beam properties.
Video 3 [ AVI (6102 kB) | RealMedia (577 kB) | QuickTime (8258 kB) | MPEG (226 kB) | GIF (1742 kB) ]
Thumbnail of Video 3The video shows the electron density in the plane of the simulation as the laser passes through a single gasjet. The gasjet parameters in this simulation are w1  =  1.5  mm, Lg1  =  0.5  mm, and np1  =  7.07  ×  1018cm-3. Starting at time 11088ωn-1 of the video the injection and trapping of electrons by transverse wavebreaking is clearly visible.

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