External injection in front of the laser pulse into a laser wakefield

The central idea of the injection of an electron bunch from a conventional accelerator in front of the laser pulse into a laser wakefield is shown in this video. An electron bunch is focused into a plasma channel ahead of a terawatt drive laser pulse, which generates a strong wake wave in the plasma. The duration of the injected bunch can be relatively long (sub-picosecond). The kinetic energy of this bunch should be in the order of a few MeV. The wake wave generated by the laser pulse will propagate with a phase velocity equal to the laser group velocity and, of course, to enable the wakefield to overtake the bunch, the bunch velocity has to be smaller than the group velocity of the laser pulse. https://sites.google.com/site/laserwakefieldacceleration

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• plasma
• laser
• wakefield
• accelerator
• physics