Trapping, Compression and Acceleration of an Electron Bunch in the Nonlinear Laser Wakefield
Abstract
A scheme of laser wakefield acceleration, when a relatively rare and long bunch of non-relativistic or weakly-relativistic electrons is initially in front of the laser pulse, is suggested and considered. The motion of test electrons is studied both in the one-dimensional case (1D wakefield) and in the three-dimensional laser wakefield excited in a plasma channel. It is shown that the bunch is trapped, effectively compressed both in longitudinal and transverse directions and accelerated to ultra-relativistic energies in the region of first accelerating maximum of the wakefield. The accelerated bunch has sizes much less than the plasma wavelength and relatively small energy spread.
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0110030,
title = {Trapping, Compression and Acceleration of an Electron Bunch in the Nonlinear Laser Wakefield},
author = {Arsen G. Khachatryan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0110030},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
20 pages, 12 figures. submitted to Phys. Rev. E; the one-dimensional version will appear in JETP Letters