Effect of self-injection on ultraintense laser wake-field acceleration.
The self-injection of plasma electrons which have been accelerated to relativistic energies by a laser pulse moving with a group velocity less than the speed of light with I lambda(2)>5 x 10(19) W microm(2)/cm(2) is found via particle-in-cell simulation to be efficient for laser wake-field acceleration. When the matching condition a(0)> or =(2(1/4)omega/omega(pl))(2/3) is met, the self-injection, along with wave breaking, dominates monoenergetic electron acceleration yielding up to 100 MeV energies by a 100 TW, 20 fs laser pulse. In contrast to the injection due to wave-breaking processes, self-injection allows suppression of production of a Maxwell distribution of accelerated particles and the extraction of a beam-quality bunch of energetic electrons.
Zhidkov
A
A
Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 22-2 Shirane-shirakata, Tokai, Naka, Ibaraki 319-1188, Japan.
Koga
J
J
Kinoshita
K
K
Uesaka
M
M