Numerical investigation of electron self-injection in the nonlinear bubble regime

Journal Article · Tue Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4824811· OSTI ID:22218553

Benedetti, C.; Schroeder, C. B.; Esarey, E.; Leemans, W. P. ^[1]; Rossi, F. ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna and INFN, Via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna (Italy)

The process of electron self-injection in the nonlinear bubble wake generated by a short and intense laser pulse propagating in a uniform underdense plasma is studied by means of fully self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations and test-particle simulations. We consider a wake generated by a non-evolving laser driver traveling with a prescribed velocity, which then sets the structure and the velocity of the wake, so the injection dynamics is decoupled from driver evolution, but a realistic structure for the wakefield is retained. We show that a threshold for self-injection into a non-evolving bubble wake exists, and we characterize the dependence of the self-injection threshold on laser intensity, wake velocity, and plasma temperature for a range of parameters of interest for current and future laser-plasma accelerators.

• OSTI ID: 22218553
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 20; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRONS
ION TEMPERATURE
LASERS
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA GUNS
PLASMA SIMULATION
TEST PARTICLES