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Acceleration of high-quality, well-collimated return beam of relativistic electrons by intense laser pulse in a low-density plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2004

LI BAIWEN ,
S. ISHIGURO ,
M.M. šKORIĆ ,
H. TAKAMARU  and
T. SATO
LI BAIWEN
Affiliation:
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and National Institute for Fusion Science, Oroshi, Toki, Japan Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing, P. R. China
S. ISHIGURO
Affiliation:
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies and National Institute for Fusion Science, Oroshi, Toki, Japan
M.M. šKORIĆ
Affiliation:
Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
H. TAKAMARU
Affiliation:
Chubu University, Kasugai, Aichi, Japan
T. SATO
Affiliation:
Earth Simulator Center, JAMSTEC, Yokohama-shi, Japan
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Abstract

The mechanism of electron acceleration by intense laser pulse interacting with an underdense plasma layer is examined by one-dimensional particle-in-cell (1D-PIC) simulations. The standard dephasing limit and the electron acceleration process are discussed briefly. A new phenomenon, of short high-quality, well-collimated return relativistic electron beam with thermal energy spread, is observed in the direction opposite to laser propagation. The process of the electron beam formation, its characteristics, and the time-history in x and px space for test electrons in the beam, are analyzed and exposed clearly. Finally, an estimate for the maximum electron energy appears in a good agreement with simulation results.

Keywords

Electron accelerationParticle simulationRelativistic laser-plasmas
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , July 2004 , pp. 307 - 314
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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