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Our research focuses on designing all-reflective phase retarders (RPRs) to generate and maintain circularly polarized (CP) light for NSF OPAL and other multipetawatt laser facilities. Assuming that the input polarization is either s- or p-polarized, RPRs need to be used in an out-of-plane configuration. Here, we will discuss the impact of transporting and focusing optics on CP light.
Wakefield based accelerators capable of accelerating gradients two orders of magnitude higher than present accelerators offer a path to compact high energy physics instruments and light sources. However, for high gradient accelerators, beam instabilities driven by commensurately high transverse wakefields limit beam quality. It has been previously theoretically shown that transverse wakefields can be reduced by elliptically shaping the transverse sizes of beams in dielectric structures with planar symmetry. We report here experimental measurements that demonstrate reduced transverse wakefields for elliptical beams in planar symmetric structures which are consistent with theoretical models. Furthermore, these results may enable the design of gigavolt-per-meter gradient wakefield based accelerators that produce and stably accelerate high quality beams.
In the underdense, or blowout regime, of plasma wakefield acceleration, the particle beam is denser than the plasma. In this scenario, the plasma electrons are nearly completely rarefied from the beam channel, leaving only a nominally uniform ion-filled “bubble.” Extensive investigations of this interaction assuming axisymmetry have been undertaken. However, the blowout produced by a transversely asymmetric (flat) driver, which would be present in linear collider “afterburner” schemes, possesses quite different characteristics. Such beams create an asymmetric plasma bubble which leads to unequal focusing in the two transverse dimensions, accompanied by a nonuniform accelerating gradient. The asymmetric blowout cross section is found through simulation to be elliptical, and treating it as such permits a simple extension of the symmetric theory. In particular, focusing fields linear in both transverse directions inside the bubble are found. The form of the wake potential and the associated beam-matching conditions in this elliptical cavity are discussed. Here, we also examine blowout boundary estimation in the long driver limit and applications of the salient asymmetric features of the wakefield.
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The analysis of plasma wakefield acceleration experimental measurements, particularly in the characterization of photons emitted through the betatron radiation mechanism, requires the development of accurate numerical models. These computational models are crucial for supporting modern instrumentation designed to measure the single-shot, double-differential angular-energy radiation spectra resulting from interactions between beams and plasmas. Motivated by the needs of such applications, this paper presents detailed numerical models of betatron radiation generated in beam-plasma acceleration experiments. These models are based on the integration of the Liénard-Wiechert (LW) potentials, applied to computed particle trajectories. The particle trajectories are generated using three distinct methods: first, by tracking particles through idealized fields in the blowout regime of PWFA; second, by obtaining trajectories using the fast quasistatic particle-in-cell (PIC) code quickpic; and third, obtaining trajectories from the fully self-consistent PIC code osiris. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of these models, the paper includes various benchmark tests using analytical expressions, as well as employing the PIC code epoch, which takes an alternative approach by using a Monte Carlo quantum electrodynamics (QED)-based radiation model. Additionally, the paper presents simulations of the expected experimental betatron radiation spectra, taking into account parameters relevant to PWFA and plasma photocathode experiments at the SLAC FACET-II facility.
Astrophysical collisionless shocks are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the Universe. Generated by violent interactions of supersonic plasma flows with the interstellar medium, supernova remnant shocks are observed to amplify magnetic fields and accelerate electrons and protons to highly relativistic speeds. In the well-established model of diffusive shock acceleration, relativistic particles are accelerated by repeated shock crossings. However, this requires a separate mechanism that pre-accelerates particles to enable shock crossing. This is known as the ‘injection problem’, which is particularly relevant for electrons, and remains one of the most important puzzles in shock acceleration. In most astrophysical shocks, the details of the shock structure cannot be directly resolved, making it challenging to identify the injection mechanism. In this letter we report results from laser-driven plasma flow experiments, and related simulations, that probe the formation of turbulent collisionless shocks in conditions relevant to young supernova remnants. We show that electrons can be effectively accelerated in a first-order Fermi process by small-scale turbulence produced within the shock transition to relativistic non-thermal energies, helping overcome the injection problem. Our observations provide new insight into electron injection at shocks and open the way for controlled laboratory studies of the physics underlying cosmic accelerators.
A concise review is given on the past two decades’ results from laboratory experiments on collisionless magnetic reconnection in direct relation with space measurements, especially by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. Highlights include spatial structures of electromagnetic fields in ion and electron diffusion regions as a function of upstream symmetry and guide field strength, energy conversion and partitioning from magnetic field to ions and electrons including particle acceleration, electrostatic and electromagnetic kinetic plasma waves with various wavelengths, and plasmoid-mediated multiscale reconnection. Combined with the progress in theoretical, numerical, and observational studies, the physics foundation of fast reconnection in collisionless plasmas has been largely established, at least within the parameter ranges and spatial scales that were studied. Immediate and long-term future opportunities based on multiscale experiments and space missions supported by exascale computation are discussed, including dissipation by kinetic plasma waves, particle heating and acceleration, and multiscale physics across fluid and kinetic scales.
Anisotropic electron heating during electron-only magnetic reconnection with a large guide magnetic field is directly measured in a laboratory plasma through in situ measurements of electron velocity distribution functions. Electron heating preferentially parallel to the magnetic field is localized to one separatrix, and anisotropies of 1.5 are measured. The mechanism for electron energization is identified as the parallel reconnection electric field because of the anisotropic nature of the heating and spatial localization. These characteristics are reproduced in a 2D particle-in-cell simulation and are also consistent with numerous magnetosheath observations. A measured increase in the perpendicular temperature along both separatrices is not reproduced by our 2D simulations. Here, this work has implications for energy partition studies in magnetosheath and laboratory reconnection.
Magnetic reconnection in strongly magnetized astrophysical plasma environments is believed to be the primary process for fast energy release and particle energization. Currently, there is strong interest in relativistic magnetic reconnection in that it may provide a new explanation for high-energy particle acceleration and radiation in strongly magnetized astrophysical systems. We review recent advances in particle acceleration and reconnection physics in the magnetically dominated regime. Much discussion is focused on the physics of particle acceleration and power-law formation as well as the reconnection rate problem. In addition, we provide an outlook for studying reconnection acceleration mechanisms and kinetic physics in the next step.
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Multipactor is a surface-driven electron avalanche phenomenon that degrades the performance and reliability of radio-frequency (RF) systems in particle accelerator and vacuum electronics applications. Multipactor behavior in a given device structure is conventionally assessed through susceptibility charts, which provide a parameter-space characterization of the instability. In this work, we assess the capabilities of machine-learning (ML) models to learn and predict such susceptibility charts and analyze the constraints governing their generalization across materials. Using a simulation-derived dataset spanning six distinct secondary-electron-yield material profiles in a canonical two-surface planar geometry, we train supervised regression models and artificial neural networks to predict the time-averaged electron growth rate, δavg, across the relevant parameter space. Model performance is evaluated using metrics that explicitly probe the structure of susceptibility charts, including Intersection over Union, Structural Similarity Index, and correlation analysis. Tree-based ensemble models outperform neural-network models in reconstructing susceptibility regions and in generalizing across material domains. Principal-component analysis reveals disjoint material feature distributions, indicating that the piecewise mode structure of multipactor susceptibility is difficult to represent with a single global model and that generalization is constrained by data coverage rather than by model complexity. An exhaustive reduced-coverage study further shows that sparse material-space coverage can yield mean performance in the same general range but producing large variability in the susceptibility-region overlap. These results clarify the capabilities of ML-based surrogate models for parameter-space characterization of multipactor discharge. They also provide guidance for their appropriate use in RF system design.
Witness beam stability and preservation of its ultra-low emittance have been identified as critical challenges toward realizing a TeV-class, plasma-based linear collider. In fact, the witness bunch parameters required by a future TeV-class collider have been expected to trigger hosing instability and background ion motion, leading to emittance degradation and, potentially, to bunch loss. Recently, it has been shown that ion motion suppresses the hosing instability, and proper longitudinal bunch shaping can eliminate the ion-motion-induced emittance growth. Here, we propose and analyze a plasma-based method to generate the shaped bunches that enable emittance preservation in the presence of ion motion. The method is based on an adiabatic matching procedure, where a bunch with an initially untapered profile is injected in the plasma accelerator stage with an energy low enough that ion motion effects are initially small. As the bunch accelerates, it is adiabatically compressed, ion motion is gradually triggered, and the bunch slowly but continuously readjusts itself in the ion motion-perturbed wakefield acquiring the desired taper. The production of tapered witness bunch profiles that minimize energy spread and preserve emittance for collider-relevant parameters could enable the use of plasma-based accelerators for high-energy physics applications.
We would like to correct an error affecting the horizontal scale of panels (c) and (d) of Fig. 4 in Ref. 1. A scale factor of k p was neglected when generating the plots. The correct figure is shown below. Further, the authors would like to thank Yujian Zhao for pointing out this issue. We would also like to correct a typo introduced during the preparation of the proofs and affecting Eq. (25); the correct equation reads. (Formula presented). All the conclusions of the paper are unaffected.
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Collisionless, magnetized turbulence offers a promising framework for the generation of nonthermal high-energy particles in various astrophysical sites. Yet, the detailed mechanism that governs particle acceleration has remained subject to debate. By means of 2D and 3D particle-in-cell, as well as 3D (incompressible) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations, we test here a recent model of nonresonant particle acceleration in strongly magnetized turbulence, which ascribes the energization of particles to their continuous interaction with the random velocity flow of the turbulence, in the spirit of the original Fermi model. To do so, we compare, for a large number of particles that were tracked in the simulations, the predicted and the observed histories of particles momenta. The predicted history is that derived from the model, after extracting from the simulations, at each point along the particle trajectory, the three force terms that control acceleration: the acceleration of the field line velocity projected along the field line direction, its shear projected along the same direction, and its transverse compressive part. Overall, we find a clear correlation between the model predictions and the numerical experiments, indicating that this nonresonant model can successfully account for the bulk of particle energization through Fermi-type processes in strongly magnetized turbulence. Additionally we also observe that the parallel shear contribution tends to dominate the physics of energization in the particle-in-cell simulations, while in the magnetohydrodynamic incompressible simulation, both the parallel shear and the transverse compressive term provide about equal contributions.
Here, we report on the experimental observation of a decreased self-injection threshold by using laser pulses with circular polarization in laser wakefield acceleration experiments in a nonpreformed plasma, compared to the usually employed linear polarization. A significantly higher electron beam charge was also observed for circular polarization compared to linear polarization over a wide range of parameters. Theoretical analysis and quasi-3D particle-in-cell simulations reveal that the self-injection and hence the laser wakefield acceleration is polarization dependent and indicate a different injection mechanism for circularly polarized laser pulses, originating from larger momentum gain by electrons during above threshold ionization. This enables electrons to meet the trapping condition more easily, and the resulting higher plasma temperature was confirmed via spectroscopy of the XUV plasma emission.