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abstract:
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Plasma-based accelerators of particles are of great interest because plasmas can sustain very strong electric fields. They are utilizing a relativistic plasma wave with a phase velocity close to the speed of light driven by a high-power laser beam. The Neptune Laboratory at UCLA is being used for plasma beatwave acceleration of injected electrons. Here, a two-wavelength laser pulse (frequencies w1,w2) resonantly drives a longitudinal electron plasma wave of frequency equal to w1-w2, providing a field strength of GeV/m and, therefore, accelerates an injected electron beam at this very high gradient. A 10 ps beam of 12 MeV electrons is loaded in a 3-cm long plasma beatwave accelerator driven by a TW CO2 laser pulse. At the resonance condition, the electrons have been accelerated to 50 MeV with a gradient of ~1.3 GeV/m. It is shown that for large volume diffraction limited plasmas, when efficiency of the plasma wave excitation is restricted by ionization-induced refraction, acceleration of electrons is enhanced significantly by using asymmetric (fast front and slow fall) long pulses. 2D PIC simulations revealed that guiding of the laser pulse in a ponderomotive, self-induced ion channel, formed ~200 ps after the field ionization, allows compensation for the ionization-induced defocusing and efficient driving of the beatwave over the entire length.
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