Plasma wake inhibition at the collision of two laser pulses in an underdense plasma

Journal Article · Fri Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2741387· OSTI ID:20975096

Rechatin, C; Faure, J; Lifschitz, A; Malka, V; Lefebvre, E ^[1]

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1. Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquee, ENSTA, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, UMR 7639, 91761 Palaiseau (France)

An electron injector concept for a laser-plasma accelerator was developed by E. Esarey et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 2682 (1997)] and G. Fubiani et al. [Phys. Rev. E 70, 016402 (2004)]; it relies on the use of counterpropagating ultrashort laser pulses. In the latter work, the scheme is as follows: the pump laser pulse generates a large-amplitude laser wakefield (plasma wave). The counterpropagating injection pulse interferes with the pump laser pulse to generate a beatwave pattern. The ponderomotive force of the beatwave is able to inject plasma electrons into the wakefield. In this paper, this injection scheme is studied using one-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. The simulations reveal phenomena and important physical processes that were not taken into account in previous models. In particular, at the collision of the laser pulses, most plasma electrons are trapped in the beatwave pattern and cannot contribute to the collective oscillation supporting the plasma wave. At this point, the fluid approximation fails and the plasma wake is strongly inhibited. Consequently, the injected charge is reduced by one order of magnitude compared to the predictions from previous models.

• OSTI ID: 20975096
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 14; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
APPROXIMATIONS
ELECTRONS
LASERS
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA GUNS
PLASMA SIMULATION
PLASMA WAVES
PONDEROMOTIVE FORCE
PULSES