No Arabic abstract
Current models predict the hose instability to crucially limit the applicability of plasma-wakefield accelerators. By developing an analytical model which incorporates the evolution of the hose instability over long propagation distances, this work demonstrates that the inherent drive-beam energy loss, along with an initial beam energy spread detune the betatron oscillations of beam electrons, and thereby mitigate the instability. It is also shown that tapered plasma profiles can strongly reduce initial hosing seeds. Hence, we demonstrate that the propagation of a drive beam can be stabilized over long propagation distances, paving the way for the acceleration of high-quality electron beams in plasma-wakefield accelerators. We find excellent agreement between our models and particle-in-cell simulations.
Synchronized, independently tunable and focused $mu$J-class laser pulses are used to release multiple electron populations via photo-ionization inside an electron-beam driven plasma wave. By varying the laser foci in the laboratory frame and the position of the underdense photocathodes in the co-moving frame, the delays between the produced bunches and their energies are adjusted. The resulting multibunches have ultra-high quality and brightness, allowing for hitherto impossible bunch configurations such as spatially overlapping bunch populations with strictly separated energies, which opens up a new regime for light sources such as free-electron-lasers.
Drive particle beams in linear or weakly nonlinear regimes of the plasma wakefield accelerator quickly reach a radial equilibrium with the wakefield, which is described in detail for the first time. The equilibrium beam state and self-consistent wakefields are obtained by combining analytical relationships, numerical integration, and first-principle simulations. In the equilibrium state, the beam density is strongly peaked near the axis, the beam radius is constant along the beam, and longitudinal variation of the focusing strength is balanced by varying beam emittance. The transverse momentum distribution of beam particles depends on the observation radius and is neither separable, nor Gaussian.
We study the effects of heat flows and velocity shear on the parallel firehose instability in weakly collisional plasma flow. For this purpose we apply an anisotropic 16-moments MHD fluid closure model that takes into account the pressure and temperature anisotropy, as well as the effect of anisotropic heat flux. The linear stability analysis of the firehose modes is carried out in the incompressible limit, where the MHD flow is parallel to the background magnetic field, while the velocity is sheared in the direction transverse to the flow direction. It seems that an increase of the velocity shear parameter leads to higher growth rates of the firehose instability. The increase of the instability growth rate is most profound for perturbations with oblique wave-numbers $k_{perp}/k_{parallel} < 1$. The heat flux parameter introduces an asymmetry of the instability growth in the shear plane: perturbations with wave-vectors with a component in the direction of the velocity shear grow significantly stronger as compared to those with components in the opposite direction. We discuss the implications of the presented study on the observable features of the solar wind and possible measurements of local parameters of the solar wind based on the stability constraints set by the firehose instability.
A dynamic mitigation mechanism of the two-stream instability is discussed based on a phase control for plasma and fluid instabilities. The basic idea for the dynamic mitigation mechanism by the phase control was proposed in the paper [Phys. Plasmas 19, 024503(2012)]. The mitigation method is applied to the two-stream instability in this paper. In general, instabilities appear from the perturbations, and normally the perturbation phase is unknown. Therefore, the instability growth rate is discussed in fluids and plasmas. However, if the perturbation phase is known, the instability growth can be controlled by a superimposition of perturbations imposed actively. For instance, a perturbed driver induces a perturbation to fluids or plasmas; if the perturbation induced by the perturbed driver is oscillated actively by the driver oscillation, the perturbation phase is known and the perturbation amplitude can be controlled, like a feedforward control. The application result shown in this paper demonstrates that the dynamic mitigation mechanism works well to smooth the non-uniformities and mitigate the instabilities in plasmas.
Multistage coupling of laser-wakefield accelerators is essential to overcome laser energy depletion for high-energy applications such as TeV level electron-positron colliders. Current staging schemes feed subsequent laser pulses into stages using plasma mirrors, while controlling electron beam focusing with plasma lenses. Here a more compact and efficient scheme is proposed to realize simultaneous coupling of the electron beam and the laser pulse into a second stage. A curved channel with transition segment is used to guide a fresh laser pulse into a subsequent straight channel, while allowing the electrons to propagate in a straight channel. This scheme benefits from a shorter coupling distance and continuous guiding of the electrons in plasma, while suppressing transverse beam dispersion. With moderate laser parameters, particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that the electron beam from a previous stage can be efficiently injected into a subsequent stage for further acceleration, while maintaining high capture efficiency, stability, and beam quality.