Demonstration of plasma beat wave acceleration of electrons from 2 MeV to 20 MeV

We describe the results from recent experimental on the plasma beat wave accelerator (PBWA) scheme at UCLA. A relativistic electron plasma wave (which is the accelerating structure) is resonantly excited in a plasma by the beating of two co-propagating electromagnetic waves (obtained from a CO/sub 2...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Clayton, C.E., Marsh, K.A., Everett, M., Lal, A., Joshi, C.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Electromagnetic scattering
Electron beams
Laser excitation
Plasma accelerators
Plasma measurements
Plasma sources
Plasma waves
Resonance
Testing
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Summary:We describe the results from recent experimental on the plasma beat wave accelerator (PBWA) scheme at UCLA. A relativistic electron plasma wave (which is the accelerating structure) is resonantly excited in a plasma by the beating of two co-propagating electromagnetic waves (obtained from a CO/sub 2/ laser operating simultaneously on two wavelengths). A 2 MeV, 200 mA (peak-current) electron beam, roughly 1 nsec (FWHM) in duration is used as a source of test particles for measuring the longitudinal fields of the plasma wave which itself is moving with a relativistic Lorentz factor of about 34. Accelerated electrons are energy-selected with an imaging sector magnet and detected simultaneously with a cloud chamber and surface barrier detectors. Initial experiments show that electrons are accelerated up to 20 MeV over roughly 1 cm (the uniform length of plasma) indicating an gradient of acceleration of more than 1.8 GeV/m.< >
DOI:10.1109/PAC.1993.309385