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Title: Particle-in-cell simulations of plasma accelerators and electron-neutral collisions

Journal Article · · Physical Review Special Topics - Accelerator and Beams

We present 2-D simulations of both beam-driven and laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators, using the object-oriented particle-in-cell code XOOPIC, which is time explicit, fully electromagnetic, and capable of running on massively parallel supercomputers. Simulations of laser-driven wakefields with low ({approx}10{sup 16} W/cm{sup 2}) and high ({approx}10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}) peak intensity laser pulses are conducted in slab geometry, showing agreement with theory and fluid simulations. Simulations of the E-157 beam wakefield experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, in which a 30 GeV electron beam passes through 1 m of preionized lithium plasma, are conducted in cylindrical geometry, obtaining good agreement with previous work. We briefly describe some of the more significant modifications of XOOPIC required by this work, and summarize the issues relevant to modeling relativistic electron-neutral collisions in a particle-in-cell code.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Director, Office of Science. Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics. Division of High Energy Physics (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00098
OSTI ID:
797866
Report Number(s):
LBNL-50725; R&D Project: 455401; B& R KA0403011; TRN: US0201760
Journal Information:
Physical Review Special Topics - Accelerator and Beams, Vol. 4, Issue 10; Other Information: Journal Publication Date: October 2001; PBD: 1 Oct 2001
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English