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- S. Krishnagopal, S.A. Samant, D. Sarkar
BARC, Mumbai, India
- P. Jha
Lucknow University, Lucknow, India
- A.K. Upadhyay
CBS, Mumbai, India
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Over the last few years, remarkable advances in laser wakefield acceleration of electrons have been achieved, including quasi-monoenergetic beams and GeV energy in a few centimeters. However, it is necessary to achieve good beam quality (large current, low energy-spread and low emittance) for applications such as free-electron lasers. We study self-injection in two regimes of the laser-plasma interaction: the moderate intensity, self-guiding regime, and the low intensity, near-injection-threshold regime, both in a homogeneous plasma that completely fills the simulation volume. We find good beam quality with injection of on-axis electrons, especially at lower intensity. We also study the case when the laser has to travel through vacuum before entering the plasma. We find that injection here is completely different, from off-axis electrons, and the beam quality is poorer.
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