Exploring ultra-high-intensity wakefields in carbon nanotube arrays: an effective plasma-density approach

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of carbon nanotube arrays as solid-state plasma structures for ultra-high-gradient particle acceleration, using simulations and an effective plasma-density approach to model wakefield generation.

Contribution

It introduces an effective plasma-density method to adapt analytical models for wakefields in non-uniform, periodic solid-state plasmas like carbon nanotube arrays.

Findings

Demonstrates feasibility of using carbon nanotube arrays for ultra-high-gradient acceleration.

Shows that effective plasma-density approach accurately describes wakefields in non-uniform plasmas.

Provides detailed analysis of wakefield dependence on structural parameters.

Abstract

Charged particle acceleration using solid-state nanostructures has attracted attention in recent years as a method of achieving ultra-high-gradient acceleration in the TV/m domain. More concretely, metallic hollow nanostructures could be suitable for particle acceleration through the excitation of wakefields by a laser or a high-intensity charged particle beam in a high-density solid-state plasma. For instance, due to their special channelling properties as well as optoelectronic and thermo-mechanical properties, carbon nanotubes could be an excellent medium for this purpose. This article investigates the feasibility of generating ultra-high gradient acceleration using carbon nanotube arrays, modelled as solid-state plasmas in conventional particle-in-cell simulations performed in a two-dimensional axisymmetric quasi}-3D geometry. The generation of beam-driven plasma wakefields depending on different parameters of the solid structure is discussed in detail. Furthermore, by adopting an effective plasma-density approach, existing analytical expressions, originally derived for homogeneous plasmas, can be used to describe wakefields driven in periodic non-uniform plasmas.