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Electron bunch injection at an angle into a laser wakefield

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2009

M.J.H. Luttikhof ,
A.G. Khachatryan ,
F.A. van Goor ,
K.-J. Boller  and
P. Mora
M.J.H. Luttikhof*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science and Technology and MESA+ Institute, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
A.G. Khachatryan
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science and Technology and MESA+ Institute, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
F.A. van Goor
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science and Technology and MESA+ Institute, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
K.-J. Boller
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science and Technology and MESA+ Institute, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
P. Mora
Affiliation:
Centre de Physique Théorique, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
*
Address correspondence and reprint request to M.J.H. Luttikhof, Faculty of Science and Technology and MESA+ Institute, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. E-mail: m.j.h.luttikhof@utwente.nl
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Abstract

External injection of electron bunches longer than the plasma wavelength in a laser wakefield accelerator can lead to the generation of femtosecond ultra relativistic bunches with a couple of percent energy spread. Extensive study has been done on external electron bunch (e.g., one generated by a photo-cathode RF linac) injection in a laser wakefield for different configurations.

In this paper, we investigate a new way of external injection where the electron bunch is injected at a small angle into the wakefield. This way one can avoid the ponderomotive scattering as well as the vacuum-plasma transition region, which tend to destroy the injected bunch. In our simulations, the effect of the laser pulse dynamics is also taken into account. It is shown that injection at an angle can provide compressed and accelerated electron bunches with less than 2% energy spread. Another advantage of this scheme is that it has less stringent requirements in terms of the size of the injected bunch and there is the potential to trap more charge.

Keywords

Electron accelerationExternal electron bunch injectionLaser wakefieldLaser-plasma acceleration
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 69 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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