Electron acceleration by coherent laser pulse echelons in periodic plasma structures

TL;DR

This paper explores using coherent laser pulse echelons in periodic plasma structures for high-gradient electron acceleration, demonstrating potential for TeV/m acceleration rates with innovative plasma configurations and PIC simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining coherent laser pulse echelons with plasma structures for efficient electron acceleration, supported by detailed simulations.

Findings

Electron bunch gains up to 120 GeV in 5.3 cm

Free streaming plasma structures withstand >10^{18} W/cm^2

Potential for TeV/m acceleration rates

Abstract

We consider a possibilty to use an echelon of mutually coherent laser pulses generated by the emerging CAN (Coherent Amplification Network) technology for direct particle acceleration in periodic plasma structures. The plasma structure survives a single shot only. However, due to it's simplicity and projected very low production costs, the structure can be replaced for every laser shot at a kiloherz repetition rate. We discuss resonant and free streaming configurations. The resonant plasma structures can trap energy of longer laser pulses but are limited to moderate laser intensities of about 10^{14}\,{\rm W/cm^{2}} and are very sensitive to the structure quality. The free streaming configurations can survive laser intensities above 10^{18}\,{\rm W/cm^{2}} for several tens of femtoseconds so that sustained accelerating rates well above {\rm TeV/m} are feasible. In our full electromagnetic relativistic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations we show a test electron bunch gaining up to 120\,{\rm GeV} over a distance of 5.3\,{\rm cm} only.