Trapping, Compression and Acceleration of an Electron Bunch in the Nonlinear Laser Wakefield

Abstract

A scheme of laser wakefield acceleration, when a relatively rare and long bunch of non-relativistic or weakly-relativistic electrons is initially in front of the laser pulse, is suggested and considered. The motion of test electrons is studied both in the one-dimensional case (1D wakefield) and in the three-dimensional laser wakefield excited in a plasma channel. It is shown that the bunch is trapped, effectively compressed both in longitudinal and transverse directions and accelerated to ultra-relativistic energies in the region of first accelerating maximum of the wakefield. The accelerated bunch has sizes much less than the plasma wavelength and relatively small energy spread.

20 pages, 12 figures. submitted to Phys. Rev. E; the one-dimensional version will appear in JETP Letters

References in corpus (3)

• Excitation of nonlinear two-dimensional wake waves in radially-nonuniform plasma
• One Dimensional Nonlinear Wake-fields Excited in a Cold Plasma by Charged Bunches
• Magnetic Field of Relativistic Nonlinear Plasma Wave

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Generation of stable ultra-relativistic attosecond electron bunches via the laser wakefield acceleration mechanism
• Electron bunch injection at an angle into a laser wakefield