In the present analysis, we study the dynamics of charged particles submitted to the action of slowly modulated electromagnetic carrier waves. While the velocity of the particles remains smaller than the carrier's phase-velocity, their dynamics is well described by a refined ponderomotive approach. The ponderomotive approach has its own validity limits well established, beyond which particles are resonantly trapped by the carrier waves. We show that under adequate conditions, the trapping mechanism places particles at an optimal relative phase with respect to the carrier for maximum acceleration. In addition to the analytical approach involved in the ponderomotive description, we use numerical simulations to validate the corresponding dynamics as well as to explore various features of the resonant trapping and acceleration. Published by AIP Publishing.

We propose to use ultrahigh intensity laser pulses with wave-front rotation (WFR) to produce short, ultraintense surface plasma waves (SPW) on grating targets for electron acceleration. Combining a smart grating design with optimal WFR conditions identified through simple analytical modeling and particle-in-cell simulation allows us to decrease the SPW duration (down to a few optical cycles) and increase its peak amplitude. In the relativistic regime, for Iλ 2 0 = 3.4 × 10 19 W/cm 2 μm 2 , such SPW are found to accelerate high charge (few 10 s of pC), high energy (up to 70 MeV), and ultrashort (few fs) electron bunches.

Articles you may be interested inRelativistic solutions for one-and two-dimensional space-charge limited current in coaxial diode Phys. Plasmas 20, 053103 (2013) A fully kinetic model for the electron flow in a crossed field device is derived and used to determine the system stationary states. It is found that for low injection temperatures, there is a simultaneous presence of distinct stationary solutions and an abrupt transition between accelerating and space-charge limited regimes. On the other hand, for high injection temperatures, there is only a single stationary solution branch and the change between the regimes becomes continuous. For intermediate temperatures, it is then identified a critical point that separates the abrupt and continuous behaviors. It is also investigated how intrinsic space-charge oscillations may drive stationary states unstable in certain parameter regimes. The results are verified with N-particle self-consistent simulations. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx

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In the present analysis we study the dynamics of charged particles under the action of slowly modulated electromagnetic carrier waves. With the use of a high-frequency laser mode along with a modulated static magnetic wiggler, we show that the ensuing total field effectively acts as a slowly modulated high-frequency beat-wave field typical of inverse free-electron laser schemes. This effective resulting field is capable of accelerating particles in much the same way as space-charge wake fields do in plasma accelerators, with the advantage of being more stable than plasma related methods. Acceleration occurs as particles transition from ponderomotive to resonant regimes, so we develop the ponderomotive formalism needed to examine this problem. The ponderomotive formalism includes terms that, although not discussed in the usual applications of the approximation, are nevertheless of crucial importance in the vicinity of resonant capture. The role of these terms is also briefly discussed in the context of generic laser-plasma interactions.

Spatially modulated electrostatic fields can be designed to efficiently accelerate particles by exploring the relationships between the amplitude, the phase velocity, the shape of the potential, and the initial velocity of the particle. The acceleration process occurs when the value of the velocity excursions of the particle surpasses the phase velocity of the carrier, as a resonant mechanism. The ponderomotive approximation based on the Lagrangian average is usually applied in this kind of system in non-accelerating regimes. The mean dynamics of the particle is well described by this approximation far from resonance. However, the approximation fails to predict some interesting features of the model near resonance, such as the uphill acceleration phenomenon. A canonical perturbation theory is more accurate in these conditions. In this work, we compare the results from the Lagrangian average and from a canonical perturbation theory, focusing in regions where the results of these two approaches differ from each other.

The previous results based on numerical simulations showed that a cold electron beam injected in a crossed field gap does not reach a time independent stationary state in the space charge limited regime [P. J. Christenson and Y. Y. Lau, Phys. Plasmas 1, 3725 (1994)]. In this work, the effect of finite injection temperature in the transition from stationary to nonstationary states is investigated. A fully kinetic model for the electron flow is derived and used to determine the possible stationary states of the system. It is found that although there is always a stationary solution for any set of parameters, depending on the injection temperature the electron flow becomes very sensitive to fluctuations and the stationary state is never reached. By investigating the nonlinear dynamics of a characteristic electron, a theory based on a single free parameter is constructed to predict when the transition between stationary and nonstationary states occurs. In agreement with the previous numerical results, the theory indicates that for vanishing temperatures the system never reaches the time independent stationary state in the space charge limited regime. Nevertheless, as the injection temperature is raised it is found a broad range of system parameters for which the stationary state is indeed attained. By properly adjusting the free parameter in the theory, one can be able to describe, to a very good accuracy, when the transition occurs.

The interaction of three waves requires wavelength and frequency matching conditions. Without the presence of a particle beam, if the conditions are satisfied and if the frequency of the envelope is lower than the lowest frequency of the waves, they exchange energy and the evolution of the envelope of each wave is given by a constant plus a sinusoidal function. On the other hand, if a particle beam propagates within electrostatic and electromagnetic fields with no wavelength and frequency match, the energy exchange between the modes is done due to the particles. One of the modes could be amplified in this scheme. In the present work, we propose a model where a nonrelativistic particle beam propagates in a plasma within two electromagnetic modes and one electrostatic mode with wavelength and frequency matching conditions. Then, the waves are allowed to exchange energy between themselves and with the particle beam as well. We present new features in comparison to the isolated triplet interaction and to the beam-wave interaction. These features are relevant for a more realistic triplet interaction model.