Controlled Electron Injection into Plasma Accelerators and SpaceCharge Estimates

Plasma based accelerators are capable of producing electron sources which are ultra-compact (a few microns) and high energies (up to hundreds of MeVs) in much shorter distances than conventional accelerators. This is due to the large longitudinal electric field that can be excited without the limitation of breakdown as in RF structures.The characteristic scale length of the accelerating field is the plasma wavelength and for typical densities ranging from 1018 - 1019 cm-3, the accelerating fields and scale length can hence be on the order of 10-100GV/m and 10-40 mu m, respectively. The production of quasimonoenergetic beams was recently obtained in a regime relying on self-trapping of background plasma electrons, using a single laser pulse for wakefield generation. In this dissertation, we study the controlled injection via the beating of two lasers (the pump laser pulse creating the plasma wave and a second beam being propagated in opposite direction) which induce a localized injection of background plasma electrons. The aim of this dissertation is to describe in detail the physics of optical injection using two lasers, the characteristics of the electron beams produced (the micrometer scale plasma wavelength can result in femtosecond and even attosecond bunches) as well as a concise estimate of the effects of space charge on the dynamics of an ultra-dense electron bunch with a large energy spread

Pitfalls in Modeling Walls and Neutrals Physics in Gas Discharges Using Parallel Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo Collision Algorithms

Owing to their ability to model the physics of low-pressure plasmas away from thermodynamical equilibrium, particle-in-cell (PIC) techniques have become one of the tools of choice to simulate the operation of many plasma devices. This trend is reinforced by the growing access to parallel computing resources which enables tackling problems that were previously intractable with PIC techniques. However, accurate modeling of these plasmas often depends critically on the detailed description of a variety of physical phenomena ranging from microscopic to macroscopic scale and from electrons' to neutral particles' timescale. Among those are coupling phenomena between charged particles and neutrals. We illustrate here how the implementation of simplified models for scattering kinematics, neutrals dynamics and particle-wall interaction can affect simulation results. Until the full breadth of these effects can be captured in models, these results underline the importance of using extensive parametric scans to assess the importance of these effects

Controlled Electron Injection into Plasma Accelerators and SpaceCharge Estimates

Plasma based accelerators are capable of producing electron sources which are ultra-compact (a few microns) and high energies (up to hundreds of MeVs) in much shorter distances than conventional accelerators. This is due to the large longitudinal electric field that can be excited without the limitation of breakdown as in RF structures.The characteristic scale length of the accelerating field is the plasma wavelength and for typical densities ranging from 1018 - 1019 cm-3, the accelerating fields and scale length can hence be on the order of 10-100GV/m and 10-40 mu m, respectively. The production of quasimonoenergetic beams was recently obtained in a regime relying on self-trapping of background plasma electrons, using a single laser pulse for wakefield generation. In this dissertation, we study the controlled injection via the beating of two lasers (the pump laser pulse creating the plasma wave and a second beam being propagated in opposite direction) which induce a localized injection of background plasma electrons. The aim of this dissertation is to describe in detail the physics of optical injection using two lasers, the characteristics of the electron beams produced (the micrometer scale plasma wavelength can result in femtosecond and even attosecond bunches) as well as a concise estimate of the effects of space charge on the dynamics of an ultra-dense electron bunch with a large energy spread

Controlled Electron Injection into Plasma Accelerators and Space Charge Estimates

Plasma based accelerators are capable of producing electron sources which are ultra-compact (a few microns) and high energies (up to hundreds of MeVs) in much shorter distances than conventional accelerators. This is due to the large longitudinal electric field that can be excited without the limitation of breakdown as in RF structures. The characteristic scale length of the accelerating field is the plasma wavelength and for typical densities ranging from 1018 - 1019 cm-3, the accelerating fields and scale length can hence be on the order of 10-100 GV/m and 10-40 mu m, respectively. The production of quasimonoenergetic beams was recently obtained in a regime relying on self-trapping of background plasma electrons, using a single laser pulse for wakefield generation. In this dissertation, we study the controlled injection via the beating of two lasers (the pump laser pulse creating the plasma wave and a second beam being propagated in opposite direction) which induce a localized injection of background plasma electrons. The aim of this dissertation is to describe in detail the physics of optical injection using two lasers, the characteristics of the electron beams produced (the micrometer scale plasma wavelength can result in femtosecond and even attosecond bunches) as well as a concise estimate of the effects of space charge on the dynamics of an ultra-dense electron bunch with a large energy spread

Studies of space-charge effects in ultrashort electron bunches

Laser-driven plasma-based accelerators are capable of producing ultrashort electron bunches in which the longitudinal size is much smaller than the transverse size. We present theoretical studies of the transport of such electron bunches in vacuum. Space charge forces acting on the bunch are calculated using an ellipsoidal bunch shape model. The effects of space charge forces and energy spread on longitudinal and transverse bunch properties are evaluated for various bunch lengths energies and amount of charge

Studies of space-charge effects in ultrashort electron bunches

Laser-driven plasma-based accelerators are capable of producing ultrashort electron bunches in which the longitudinal size is much smaller than the transverse size. We present theoretical studies of the transport of such electron bunches in vacuum. Space charge forces acting on the bunch are calculated using an ellipsoidal bunch shape model. The effects of space charge forces and energy spread on longitudinal and transverse bunch properties are evaluated for various bunch lengths energies and amount of charge

Secondary emission effects in the ITER negative ion electrostatic accelerator

International audienc

Modelling of secondary emission processes in the ITER negative ion based electrostatic accelerator

International audienc

Semi-analytical 6D model of space charge force for dense electron bunches with a large energy spread

Laser driven accelerators are capable of producing multi nC, multi MeV electron beams with transverse and longitudinal sizes on the order of microns. To investigate the transport of such electron bunches, a fast and fully relativistic space charge code which can handle beams with arbitrarily large energy spread has been developed. A 6-D macroparticle model for the beam is used to calculate the space charge fields at each time step. The collection of macroparticles is divided into longitudinal momentum bins, each with a small spread in relative momentum. The macroparticle distribution in each momentum bin is decomposed into ellipsoidal shells in position space. For each shell, an analytical expression for the electrostatic force in the bin rest frame is used. The total space charge force acting on one macroparticle in the lab frame is then the vector sum of the Lorentz-transformed forces from all the momentum bins. We have used this code to study the evolution of typical beams emerging from the plasma in the two most popular schemes, i.e., the self-modulated laser-wakefield-accelerator, where the laser pulse size is many times the plasma wavelength (L >> lr), and the colliding pulse laser-wakefield-accelerator regime where L-lr and two counter propagating laser pulses are used to inject electrons into the wakefield