title: Beat-wave excitation of plasma waves based on relativistic bistability.
abstract: A nonlinear beat-wave regime of plasma wave excitation is considered. Two beat-wave drivers are considered: intensity-modulated laser pulse and density-modulated (microbunched) electron beam. It is shown that a long beat-wave pulse can excite strong plasma waves in its wake even when the beat-wave frequency is detuned from the electron plasma frequency. The wake is caused by the dynamic bistability of the nonlinear plasma wave if the beat-wave amplitude exceeds the analytically calculated threshold. In the context of a microbunched beam driven plasma wakefield accelerator, this excitation regime can be applied to developing a femtosecond electron injector.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Gennady
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shvets