A Cherenkov-emission microwave source

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:438839

Yoshii, J; Lai, C H; Katsouleas, T ^[1]; Hairapetian, G; Joshi, C; Mori, W ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

In an unmagnetized plasma, there is no Cherenkov emission because the phase velocity {nu}{sub {phi}} of light is greater than c. In a magnetized plasma, the situation is completely changed. There is a rich variety of plasma modes with phase velocities {nu}{sub {phi}} {le} c which can couple to a fast particle. In the magnetized plasma, a fast particle or particle beam excites a Cherenkov wake that has both electrostatic and electromagnetic components. Preliminary simulations indicate that at the vacuum/plasma boundary, the wake couples to a vacuum microwave with an amplitude equal to the electromagnetic component in the plasma. For a weakly magnetized plasma, the amplitude of the outcoupled radiation is approximately {omega}{sub c}/{omega}{sub p} times the amplitude of the wake excited in the plasma by the beam, and the frequency is approximately w{sub p}. Since plasma wakes as high as 100 MeV/m are expected in near-term experiments, the potential for a high-power, coherent microwave to THz source exists. In this talk, a brief overview of the scaling laws will be presented, followed by 1-D and 2-D PIC simulations. Prospects for a tunable microwave source experiment based on this mechanism at the UCLA plasma wakefield accelerator facility will be discussed.

• DOE Contract Number: FG03-92ER40745
• OSTI ID: 438839
• Report Number(s): CONF-960634--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
CHERENKOV RADIATION
MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS
PLASMA SIMULATION
PLASMA WAVES
SCALING LAWS
WAKEFIELD ACCELERATORS