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Dynamics of boundary layer electrons around a laser wakefield bubble

Authors :
Suming Weng
T. Yuan
Eric Esarey
J.-Y. Yu
Min Chen
Lu-Le Yu
Ji Luo
Guo-Bo Zhang
Z.-C. Shen
Carl Schroeder
Source :
Physics of Plasmas. 23:103112
Publication Year :
2016
Publisher :
AIP Publishing, 2016.

Abstract

The dynamics of electrons forming the boundary layer of a highly nonlinear laser wakefield driven in the so called bubble or blowout regime is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that when the driver pulse intensity increases or the focal spot size decreases, a significant amount of electrons initially pushed by the laser pulse can detach from the bubble structure at its tail, middle, or front and form particular classes of waves locally with high densities, referred to as the tail wave, lateral wave, and bow wave. The tail wave and bow wave correspond to real electron trajectories, while the lateral wave does not. The detached electrons can be ejected transversely, containing considerable energy, and reducing the efficiency of the laser wakefield accelerator. Some of the transversely emitted electrons may obtain MeV level energy. These electrons can be used for wake evolution diagnosis and producing high frequency radiation.

Details

ISSN :
10897674 and 1070664X
Volume :
23
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Physics of Plasmas
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........8792c4f5b2ee5e3c05fcf1ac175c1c2f