近共振区超短强激光脉冲激发的等离子体尾波场

 用一维相对论粒子模拟研究了相对论超短强激光脉冲在等离子体中传播时激发的尾波场,初步获得了近共振区尾波场的峰值幅度随激光脉冲宽度变化的特点,发现在近共振区等离子体波激发出现增强。通过准静态近似下尾波激发的一维非线性方程数值求解,并与粒子模拟结果比较,得到了该非线性方程的适用范围：当激光脉冲宽度小于等离子体波波长的4倍时,该方程所得结果与粒子模拟结果一致;而当激光脉冲宽度大于该数值时,该方程不再适用。     

Nonlinear Plasma Dynanics in the Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

Excitation of nonlinear plasma oscillations by an ultrarelativistic electron beam is considered in this paper. It is shown, by analytical solutions of the fully relativistic nonlinear fluid equations in one dimension, that under certain conditions on the relative densities of the electron beam and the plasma, extremely large longitudinal electric fields can be generated in the wake of the beam. This scheme can be considered as a nonlinear regime of the plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA), and is seen to have the advantage that the transformer ratio, the ratio of the maximum amplitude of the accelerating field behind the driving beam over the maximum amplitude of the decelerating field inside of the beam, can be made arbitrarily large, dependent only on the length of the driving beam. The effects of beam loading on the efficiency of this scheme are considered, and are shown to be equivalent to those predicted in the linear regime.     

Robust autoresonant excitation in the plasma beat-wave accelerator

A modified version of the plasma beat-wave accelerator scheme is proposed, based on autoresonant phase locking of the Langmuir wave to the slowly chirped beat frequency of the driving lasers by passage through resonance. Peak electric fields above standard detuning limits seem readily attainable, and the plasma wave excitation is robust to large variations in plasma density or chirp rate. This scheme might be implemented in existing chirped pulse amplification or CO2 laser systems.     

Nonlinear theory of resonant beam-plasma interaction: Nonrelativistic case

Analytic and numerical methods are used to study the nonlinear dynamics of the resonant interaction between a dense nonrelativistic electron beam and a plasma in a spatially bounded system. Regimes such as collective (Raman) and single-particle (Thomson) Cherenkov effects are considered. It is shown that in the first case, the motion of both the beam and plasma electrons exhibits significant nonlinearities. However, because of the weak coupling between the beam and the plasma, the nonlinear dynamics of the instability can be studied analytically and it can be strictly shown that saturation of instability is caused by a nonlinear shift of the radiation frequency and loss of resonance. In the second case, the nonlinear instability dynamics can only be studied numerically. In this regime, at low beam densities significant nonlinearity is only observed in the motion of the beam electrons while the plasma remains linear and saturation of the instability is caused by trapping of beam electrons in the field of the beam-excited plasma wave.     

激光等离子体拍频波加速器中泵浦倒空的消除

泵浦倒空是限制激光等离子体拍频加速器概念成为现实的严重问题。本文从电子等离子体波拍频激发的弱相对论性方程出发,在光脉冲坐标中导出了对任意形状的泵浦脉冲消除倒空的条件。研究表明,只要泵浦光在脉冲中心有π位相突变,并且适当选取初始等离子体密度离谐,就可消除泵浦倒空。对于方形泵浦脉冲,本文数值计算了初始离谐随泵浦光强的变化关系,并证实了本文提出的消除泵浦倒空方法的正确性。 关键词：     

Overview of plasma-based accelerator concepts

An overview is given of the physics issues relevant to the plasma wakefield accelerator, the plasma beat-wave accelerator, the laser wakefield accelerator, including the self-modulated regime, and wakefield accelerators driven by multiple electron or laser pulses. Basic properties of linear and nonlinear plasma waves are discussed, as well as the trapping and acceleration of electrons in the plasma wave. Formulas are presented for the accelerating field and the energy gain in the various accelerator configurations. The propagation of the drive electron or laser beams is discussed, including limitations imposed by key instabilities and methods for optically guiding laser pulses. Recent experimental results are summarized     

Excitation of upper-hybrid plasma wake wave by a low-frequency extraordinary electromagnetic wave

The excitation of upper-hybrid wake electrostatic wave by interaction of an extraordinary Gaussian wave propagating perpendicular to the external magnetic field in a cold homogeneous plasma is investigated using magnetohydrodynamics theory. The plasma oscillations can be excited due to the charge separation appeared by the ponderomotive force of the electromagnetic wave whose frequency is considered in the lower pass band. By obtaining the equation governing the plasma wake, the dependency of the wake amplitude on the physical parameters is studied. It is observed that larger wake oscillation takes place when the pulse length is approximately close to 3λ_p/π and the X-wave frequency is greater than ω_p, which means that the phase velocity is less than the speed of light in vacuum (v_p < c).     

Control of gradient-driven instabilities using shear Alfvén beat waves

A new technique for manipulation and control of gradient-driven instabilities through nonlinear interaction with Alfvén waves in a laboratory plasma is presented. A narrow, field-aligned density depletion is created in the Large Plasma Device, resulting in coherent, unstable fluctuations on the periphery of the depletion. Two independent shear Alfvén waves are launched along the depletion at separate frequencies, creating a nonlinear beat-wave response at or near the frequency of the original instability. When the beat wave has sufficient amplitude, the original unstable mode is suppressed, leaving only the beat-wave response, generally at lower amplitude.     

Demonstration of laser-frequency upshift by electron-density modulations in a plasma wakefield

In a plasma wake wave generated by a high power laser, modulations of the electron density take the shape of paraboloidal dense shells, moving almost at the speed of light. A counterpropagating laser pulse is partially reflected from the shells, acting as relativistic flying mirrors, producing a time-compressed frequency-multiplied pulse due to the double Doppler effect. The counterpropagating laser pulse reflection from the plasma wake wave accompanied by its frequency multiplication (with a factor from 50 to 114) was detected in our experiment.     

Transformation of a nonlinear plasma wave into electromagnetic radiation in a periodic magnetic field

We study transformation of a nonlinear plasma wave into electromagnetic radiation in the periodic static magnetic field of an undulator. Such a wave can be excited by a short laser pulse or a relativistic electron bunch. The features of relativistic upper-hybrid plasma oscillations are analyzed. In the approximation of constant pump, resonance conditions of excitation of an electromagnetic wave and the characteristic transformation length are found. The nonlinear stage of transformation with allowance for pump depletion is considered. The studied phenomenon can be used for development of a high-power terahertz-radiatoin source. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 496–507, June 2007.     

Nonlinear interaction of ultraintense laser pulse with relativistic thin plasma foil in the radiation pressure-dominant regime

We present a study of the effect of laser pulse temporal profile on the energy /momentum acquired by the ions as a result of the ultraintense laser pulse focussed on a thin plasma layer in the radiation pressure-dominant (RPD) regime. In the RPD regime, the plasma foil is pushed by ultraintense laser pulse when the radiation cannot propagate through the foil, while the electron and ion layers move together. The nonlinear character of laser–matter interaction is exhibited in the relativistic frequency shift, and also change in the wave amplitude as the EM wave gets reflected by the relativistically moving thin dense plasma layer. Relativistic effects in a high-energy plasma provide matching conditions that make it possible to exchange very effectively ordered kinetic energy and momentum between the EM fields and the plasma. When matter moves at relativistic velocities, the efficiency of the energy transfer from the radiation to thin plasma foil is more than 30% and in ultrarelativistic case it approaches one. The momentum /energy transfer to the ions is found to depend on the temporal profile of the laser pulse. Our numerical results show that for the same laser and plasma parameters, a Lorentzian pulse can accelerate ions upto 0.2 GeV within 10 fs which is 1.5 times larger than that a Gaussian pulse can.     

Wave Theory of a Traveling-Wave Tube Operated Near the Cutoff

We outline the main principles of the wave theory of interaction between an electron beam and waves in a slow-wave structure near the edge of the transmission band. Formulation of the basic equations and the boundary conditions is considered taking consistently into account that the interaction parameter is small. A comparison of the results with a discrete version of the theory is discussed. We also consider the starting conditions for the oscillation regime, the linear amplification regimes, and some effects found within the framework of the nonstationary nonlinear theory, e.g., parasitic self-excitation in the amplification regime and hard excitation of the oscillation regime.     

Trapping, compression, and acceleration of an electron beam by the laser wake wave

The scheme of laser wake-field acceleration in plasma is proposed and considered for the case where a relatively rare nonrelativistic or weakly relativistic electron beam is initially situated ahead of the intense laser pulse. It is shown that an electron beam is trapped in the region of the first accelerating wake maximum; then it is strongly compressed and accelerated to ultrarelativistic energies.     

Subharmonic resonances in plasmas: exponential and superexponential growth of driven relativistic plasma waves

Subharmonic resonant beat-wave excitation of nonlinear relativistic plasma waves is studied analytically and in particle-in-cell simulations. We find that if the frequency separation of the lasers, Deltaomega, is 2omega(p) or 3omega(p) ( omega(p) is the plasma frequency), then plasma waves are still excited at omega(p) but they grow exponentially or superexponentially rather than secularly. Both of these subharmonic resonant instabilities saturate due to relativistic detuning. The analytical growth rates and saturation levels agree with the simulation results.     

Nonlinear pulse propagation and phase velocity of laser-driven plasma waves

Laser evolution and plasma wave excitation by a relativistically intense short-pulse laser in underdense plasma are investigated in the broad pulse limit, including the effects of pulse steepening, frequency redshifting, and energy depletion. The nonlinear plasma wave phase velocity is shown to be significantly lower than the laser group velocity and further decreases as the pulse propagates owing to laser evolution. This lowers the thresholds for trapping and wave breaking and reduces the energy gain and efficiency of laser-plasma accelerators that use a uniform plasma profile.     

Linear theory of plasma filled backward wave oscillator

An analytical and numerical study of backward wave oscillator (BWO) in linear regime is presented to get an insight into the excitation of electromagnetic waves as a result of the interaction of the relativistic electron beam with a slow wave structure. The effect of background plasma on the BWO instability is also presented.     

Double-line terawatt OPCPA laser system for exciting beat wave oscillations

A double-line terawatt beat laser (BEAT) is developed for exciting beat wave oscillations. BEAT consists of two oscillators and an amplification system including optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) in which two individual pulses with wavelength separations of 10–35 nm are amplified, recompressed, and focused as a single beam. The recompressed pulse trace shows that a 150-fs pulse duration full width at half maximum was modulated at a beating period of 72 fs. This beating period matches a resonant excitation of plasma wave with an electron density of 2.5 × 10¹⁸ cm^?3, resulting in excitation of a beat wave in hydrogen plasma with wave amplitude of 15 GV/m. The multiple beating oscillations can amplify the plasma wave and improve its structure. This scheme would be ideal for stabilizing the plasma wave strength in the plasma cavity and for realizing a practical laser plasma accelerator.     

Allowable propagation of short pulse laser beam in a plasma channel and electromagnetic solitary waves

Nonparaxial and nonlinear propagation of a short intense laser beam in a parabolic plasma channel is analyzed by means of the variational method and nonlinear dynamics. The beam propagation properties are classified by five kinds of behaviors. In particularly, the electromagnetic solitary wave for finite pulse laser is found beside the other four propagation cases including beam periodically oscillating with defocussing and focusing amplitude, constant spot size, beam catastrophic focusing. It is also found that the laser pulse can be allowed to propagate in the plasma channel only when a certain relation for laser parameters and plasma channel parameters is satisfied. For the solitary wave, it may provide an effective way to obtain ultra-short laser pulse.     

Pulse chirping effect on controlling the transverse cavity oscillations in nonlinear bubble regime

The propagation of an intense laser pulse in an under-dense plasma induces a plasma wake that is suitable for the acceleration of electrons to relativistic energies. For an ultra-intense laser pulse which has a longitudinal size shorter than the plasma wavelength, λp, instead of a periodic plasma wave, a cavity free from cold plasma electrons, called a bubble, is formed behind the laser pulse. An intense charge separation electric field inside the moving bubble can capture the electrons at the base of the bubble and accelerate them with a narrow energy spread. In the nonlinear bubble regime, due to localized depletion at the front of the pulse during its propagation through the plasma, the phase shift between carrier waves and pulse envelope plays an important role in plasma response. The carrier–envelope phase(CEP) breaks down the symmetric transverse ponderomotive force of the laser pulse that makes the bubble structure unstable. Our studies using a series of two-dimensional(2D) particle-in-cell(PIC) simulations show that the frequency-chirped laser pulses are more effective in controlling the pulse depletion rate and consequently the effect of the CEP in the bubble regime. The results indicate that the utilization of a positively chirped laser pulse leads to an increase in rate of erosion of the leading edge of the pulse that rapidly results in the formation of a steep intensity gradient at the front of the pulse. A more unstable bubble structure, the self-injections in different positions, and high dark current are the results of using a positively chirped laser pulse. For a negatively chirped laser pulse, the pulse depletion process is compensated during the propagation of the pulse in plasma in such a way that results in a more stable bubble shape and therefore, a localized electron bunch is produced during the acceleration process. As a result, by the proper choice of chirping, one can tune the number of self-injected electrons, the size of accelerated bunch and its energy spectrum to the values required for practical applications.     

Non-relativistic quantum theory of stimulated Cherenkov radiation and Compton scattering in plasma

The stimulated processes in electron plasma, i.e., Cherenkov radiation by a nonrelativistic electron beam of longitudinal oscillations and Compton scattering of a transverse electromagnetic wave in plasma with quantum mode excitation (de Broglie wave), are considered in the three-wave approximation. The possibility of the occurrence of quantum oscillations is discussed.