Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Apr 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..apr.e6003c&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, April Meeting, Jointly Sponsored with the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American As
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Among all the advanced accelerator concepts that use lasers as the power source, most of the effort to date has been with the idea of using a laser pulse to excite a accelerating mode in a plasma. Within this area, there are a variety of approaches for creating the accelerating mode, as indicated by the other talks in this session. What is common to these approaches is the physics of how a laser pulse pushes on plasma electrons to organize electron-density perturbations, the sources of the ultra-high (> GeV/M) accelerating gradients. It is the "ponderomotive force", proportional to the local gradient of the of the laser intensity, that pushes plasma electrons forward (on the leading edge of the pulse) and backwards (on the trailing edge) which leads to harmonic motion of the electrons. As the laser pulse moves through the plasma at group velocity Vg c, the oscillating electrons show up macroscopically as a plasma mode or wave with frequency w equal to the plasma frequency and k = w/Vg. For short laser pulses, this is the Laser Wakefield Accelerator (LWFA) concept. Closely related is the Plasma Beat-Wave Acceleration (PBWA) concept. Here, the laser pulse that perturbs the plasma is composed of two closely-spaced frequencies that "beat", i.e., periodically constructively and destructively interfere, forming an electromagnetic beat wave. One can visualize this as a train of short pulses. If this beating frequency is set to the plasma frequency, then each pulse in the train will reinforce the density perturbation caused by the previous pulse. The principal advantage of multiple pulses driving up the plasma wave as opposed to a single pulse is in efficiency, allowing for the production of relatively large diameter (more 1-D like) accelerating modes. In this talk I will discuss past, current and planned PBWA experiments which are taking place at UCLA, RAL in England, and LULI in France.
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