SHarD: A beam dynamics simulationcode for dielectric laser acceleratorsbased on spatial harmonic field expansion

TL;DR

SHarD is a Matlab-based simulation tool that models electron beam dynamics in dielectric laser accelerators using spatial harmonic expansion, aiding optimization of accelerator parameters for on-chip relativistic electron acceleration.

Contribution

The paper introduces SHarD, a novel simulation code employing spatial harmonic expansion to accurately model beam dynamics in dielectric laser accelerators.

Findings

Simulation can optimize accelerator parameters such as energy and beam size.

The code predicts electron acceleration outcomes in fabricated structures.

It supports design improvements for dielectric laser accelerators.

Abstract

In order to demonstrate acceleration of electrons to relativistic scales by an on chipdielectric laser accelerator (DLA), a ponderomotive focusing scheme capable of capturingand transporting electrons through nanometer-scale apertures over extended interactionlengths has been proposed. We present a Matlab-based numerical code (SHarD) utilizinga spatial harmonic expansion of the fields within the dielectric structure to simulate theevolution of the beam phase space distribution in this scheme. The code can be usedto optimize key-parameters for the accelerator performance such as the final energy,transverse spot size evolution and total number of electrons accelerated through currentlyfabricated structures. Eventually, the simulation model will be applied to inform thephase mask profile to be added to a pulse front tilt drive laser pulse using a liquid crystalmask in the experimental setup being assembled at UCLA Pegasus Laboratory.