Speaker
Description
Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) enables ultra-compact, multi-GeV electron sources, offering a promising route toward next-generation accelerators for medical, industrial, and high-energy physics applications. Using multi-dimensional PIC simulations with SMILEI, this work examines nonlinear wakefield evolution in a two-stage LWFA configuration. In the first stage, a relativistically intense laser (a₀=7.7, λ₀=0.8 μm, w₀=20 μm, E=30 J, τ=30 fs) propagates through a helium plasma (nₑ=7×10¹⁸cm⁻³), producing strongly nonlinear bubble dynamics, including disruption and merging near the relativistic wave-breaking limit. These effects enhance trapping efficiency and yield a quasi-monoenergetic ~1 GeV, 1 nC beam with low divergence and sub-10% energy spread. This beam is injected into a second LWFA stage at the same density to study coupling physics. Injection-delay tuning between the electron beam and laser pulse significantly boosts performance, enabling injected electrons to reach ~2.5 GeV and background-trapped electrons to exceed 3 GeV while maintaining charge and spectral quality. These results demonstrate a practical strategy for compact, high-quality multi-GeV plasma accelerators relevant for ultrafast X-ray generation, neutron sources, radiation therapy, and future high-energy particle collider development.
| Keyword-1 | Laser Plasma Accelerators |
|---|---|
| Keyword-2 | Laser Wakefield Acceleration |
| Keyword-3 | Multi-GeV Electron Eeam |