Numerical investigation of electron self-injection in the nonlinear bubble regime

作者：Benedetti C^*; Schroeder C B; Esarey E; Rossi F; Leemans W P

来源：Physics of Plasmas, 2013, 20(10): 103108.

DOI：10.1063/1.4824811

The process of electron self-injection in the nonlinear bubble wake generated by a short and intense laser pulse propagating in a uniform underdense plasma is studied by means of fully self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations and test-particle simulations. We consider a wake generated by a non-evolving laser driver traveling with a prescribed velocity, which then sets the structure and the velocity of the wake, so the injection dynamics is decoupled from driver evolution, but a realistic structure for the wakefield is retained. We show that a threshold for self-injection into a non-evolving bubble wake exists, and we characterize the dependence of the self-injection threshold on laser intensity, wake velocity, and plasma temperature for a range of parameters of interest for current and future laser-plasma accelerators.

• 出版日期2013-10