Laser wake-field acceleration and optical guiding in a hollow plasma channel
- Department of Electrical Engineering-Electrophysics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0484 (United States)
- University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024 (United States)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
- National Central University, Taiwan (Taiwan, Province of China)
The accelerating and focusing wake fields that can be excited by a short laser pulse in a hollow underdense plasma are examined. The evacuated channel in the plasma serves as an optical fiber to guide the laser pulse over many Rayleigh lengths. Wake fields excited by plasma current at the edge of the channel extend to the center where they may be used for ultrahigh gradient acceleration of particles over long distances. The wake field and equilibrium laser profiles are found analytically and compared to two-dimensional (2-D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Laser propagation is simulated over more than ten Rayleigh lengths. The accelerating gradients on the axis of a channel of radius {ital c}/{omega}{sub {ital p}} are of order of one-half of the gradients in a uniform plasma. For present high-power lasers, multi-GeV/m gradients are predicted. {copyright} {ital 1995} {ital American} {ital Institute} {ital of} {ital Physics}.
- OSTI ID:
- 164975
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 2; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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