Title :
Experiments on the Plasma Beat-Wave Accelerator
Author :
Ebrahim, N.A. ; Lavigne, P. ; Aithal, S.
Author_Institution :
Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A.
Abstract :
We report an experimental study of the beat-wave excitation of plasma waves using a short pulse, high intensity CO2 laser with two colinearly propagating beams to excite the fast wave (vp ¿ c) in a long-scale-length underdense plasma. Maximum plasma wave amplitudes n1/n0 ¿ 0.19 with effective longitudinal electric field gradients of ¿ 6 GV/m over a distance of 0.5 mm were achieved in these experiments.
Keywords :
Acceleration; Laser beams; Laser excitation; Optical pulses; Particle beams; Plasma accelerators; Plasma density; Plasma measurements; Plasma waves; Pulse measurements;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TNS.1985.4334421
