ELECTRON INJECTION INTO PLASMA WAKE FIELDS BY COLLIDING LASER-PULSES

An injector and accelerator is analyzed that uses three collinear lase r pulses in a plasma: an intense pump pulse, which generates a large w ake field (greater than or equal to 20 GV/m), and two counterpropagati ng injection pulses. When the injection pulses collide, a slow phase v elocity beat wave is generated that injects electrons into the fast wa ke field for acceleration. Particle tracking simulations in 1D with in jection pulse intensities near 10(17) W/cm(2) indicate the production of relativistic electrons with bunch durations as short as 3 fs, energ y spreads as small as 0.3%, and densities as high as 10(18) cm(-3).