SIMULATION OF RELATIVISTIC ELECTRON GENERATION IN UNDER-DENSE LASER-PLASMA EXPERIMENTS

The generation of relativistic electrons by nonlinear coupling of a la ser beam to an underdense plasma is simulated. An Eulerian Vlasov code is used, which enables direct solution of the fully nonlinear Vlasov- Maxwell system in real space. The impact of stimulated Raman and Compt on scattering on the electron velocity distribution is investigated. S imulations show that electrons can be accelerated to energies of sever al MeV. The role of induced scattering processes is analyzed in detail , using electromagnetic field spectra and electron phase-space informa tion as diagnostics. The effects of density gradients in the backgroun d plasma are also quantified.