Highly-efficient electron ponderomotive acceleration in underdense plasmas
Abstract
Laser-plasma accelerators represent a promising technology for future compact accelerating systems, enabling the acceleration of tens of pC to above GeV over just a few centimeters. Nonetheless, these devices currently lack the stability, beam quality and average current of conventional systems. While many efforts have focused on improving acceleration stability and quality, little progress has been made in increasing the beam's average current, which is essential for future laser-plasma-based applications. In this paper, we investigate a laser-plasma acceleration regime aimed at increasing the beam average current with energies up to few-MeVs, efficiently enhancing the beam charge. We present experimental results on configurations that allow reaching charges of nC and a maximum conversion efficiency of around %. Through comprehensive Particle-In-Cell simulations, we interpret the experimental results and present a detailed study on electron dynamics. From our analysis, we show that most electrons are not trapped in a plasma wave; rather, they experience ponderomotive acceleration. Thus, we prove the laser pulse as the main driver of the particles' energy gain process.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2408.00560,
title = {Highly-efficient electron ponderomotive acceleration in underdense plasmas},
author = {Lorenzo Martelli and Olena Kononenko and Igor Andriyash and Jonathan Wheeler and Julien Gautier and Jean-Philippe Goddet and Amar Tafzi and Ronan Lahaye and Camilla Giaccaglia and Alessandro Flacco and Vidmantas Tomkus and Migle Mackevičiūtė and Juozas Dudutis and Valdemar Stankevic and Paulius Gečys and Gediminas Račiukaitis and Henri Kraft and Xuan Quyen Dinh and Cédric Thaury},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.00560},
year = {2024}
}