Modeling of Laser wakefield acceleration in Lorentz boosted frame using EM-PIC code with spectral solver

Abstract

Simulating laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) in a Lorentz boosted frame in which the plasma drifts towards the laser with $v_b$ can speedup the simulation by factors of ${\gamma }_b^2=(1-v_b^2/c^2{)}^{-1}$. In these simulations the relativistic drifting plasma inevitably induces a high frequency numerical instability that contaminates the interested physics. Various approaches have been proposed to mitigate this instability. One approach is to solve Maxwell equations in Fourier space (a spectral solver) as this has been shown to suppress the fastest growing modes of this instability in simple test problems using a simple low pass, ring (in two dimensions), or shell (in three dimensions) filter in Fourier space. We describe the development of a fully parallelized, multi-dimensional, particle-in-cell code that uses a spectral solver to solve Maxwell's equations and that includes the ability to launch a laser using a moving antenna. This new EM-PIC code is called UPIC-EMMA and it is based on the components of the UCLA PIC framework (UPIC). We show that by using UPIC-EMMA, LWFA simulations in the boosted frames with arbitrary ${\gamma }_b$ can be conducted without the presence of the numerical instability. We also compare the results of a few LWFA cases for several values of ${\gamma }_b$, including lab frame simulations using OSIRIS, a EM-PIC code with a finite difference time domain (FDTD) Maxwell solver. These comparisons include cases in both linear, and nonlinear regimes. We also investigate some issues associated with numerical dispersion in lab and boosted frame simulations and between FDTD and spectral solvers.

References in corpus (1)

• Generating multi-GeV electron bunches using single stage laser wakefield acceleration in a 3D nonlinear regime

Cited by in corpus (18)

• A spectral, quasi-cylindrical and dispersion-free Particle-In-Cell algorithm
• Extended PIC schemes for physics in ultra-strong laser fields: review and developments
• Implementation of a hybrid particle code with a PIC description in r-z and a gridless description in $\varphi$ into OSIRIS
• Controlling the Numerical Cerenkov Instability in PIC simulations using a customized finite difference Maxwell solver and a local FFT based current correction
• PIC Simulation Methods for Cosmic Radiation and Plasma Instabilities
• HiPACE++: a portable, 3D quasi-static Particle-in-Cell code
• Improved Numerical Cherenkov Instability Suppression in the Generalized PSTD PIC Algorithm
• A quasi-static particle-in-cell algorithm based on an azimuthal Fourier decomposition for highly efficient simulations of plasma-based acceleration: QPAD
• Elimination of the numerical Cerenkov instability for spectral EM-PIC codes
• Mitigation of numerical Cerenkov radiation and instability using a hybrid finite difference-FFT Maxwell solver and a local charge conserving current deposit
• Stability Property of Numerical Cherenkov Radiation and its Application to Relativistic Shock Simulations
• On numerical errors to the fields surrounding a relativistically moving particle in PIC codes
• Lorentz boosted frame simulation of Laser wakefield acceleration in quasi-3D geometry
• On the generation of ultra-bright and low energy spread electron beams in laser wakefield acceleration in a uniform plasma
• MITHRA 1.0: A full-wave simulation tool for Free Electron Lasers
• Explicit energy-conserving modification of relativistic PIC method
• A new field solver for modeling of relativistic particle-laser interactions using the particle-in-cell algorithm
• Optimized matching conditions for self-guided laser wakefield accelerators