Electron trapping and acceleration on a downward density ramp: A two-stage approach

Journal article

In a recent experiment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Geddes et al 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 215004), electron bunches with about 1 MeV mean energy and small absolute energy spread (about 0.3 MeV) were produced by plasma wave breaking on a downward density ramp. It was then speculated that such a bunch might be accelerated further in a plasma of low constant density, while mostly preserving its small absolute energy spread. This would then lead to a bunch with a high mean energy and very low relative energy spread. In this paper, trapping of a low-energy, low-spread electron bunch on a downward density ramp, followed by acceleration in a constant-density plasma, has been explored through particle-in-cell simulations. It has been found that the scheme works best when it is used as a separate injection stage for a laserwakefield accelerator, where the injection and acceleration stages are separated by a vacuum gap. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.

Authors: Trines, R; Bingham, R; Najmudin, Z; Mangles, S; Silva, L

• Journal: New Journal of Physics
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 045027-045027
• Publication date: 2010-04-30
• DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/12/4/045027
• EISSN: 1367-2630
• ISSN: 1367-2630
• Language: English