Plasma-based accelerators can sustain accelerating gradients on the order of 100 GV/m. If the plasma is not fully ionized, fields of this magnitude will ionize neutral atoms via electron tunneling, which can completely change the dynamics of the plasma wake. Particle-in-cell simulations of a high-field plasma wakefield accelerator, using the OOPIC code [D. L. Bruhwiler et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 4, 101302 (2001)], which includes field-induced tunneling ionization of neutral Li gas, show that the presence of even moderate neutral gas density significantly degrades the quality of the wakefield. The tunneling ionization model in OOPIC has been validated via a detailed comparison with experimental data from the l’OASIS laboratory [W.P. Leemans et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 174802 (2002)]. The properties of a wake generated directly from a neutral gas are studied, showing that one can recover the peak fields of the fully ionized plasma simulations, if the density of the electron drive bunch is increased such that the bunch rapidly ionizes the gas.

We present 2D simulations of both beam-driven and laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators, using the object-oriented particle-in-cell code XOOPIC, which is time explicit, fully electromagnetic, and capable of running on massively parallel supercomputers. Simulations of laser-driven wakefields with low ͑ϳ10 16 W͞cm 2 ͒ and high ͑ϳ10 18 W͞cm 2 ͒ peak intensity laser pulses are conducted in slab geometry, showing agreement with theory and fluid simulations. Simulations of the E-157 beam wakefield experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, in which a 30 GeV electron beam passes through 1 m of preionized lithium plasma, are conducted in cylindrical geometry, obtaining good agreement with previous work. We briefly describe some of the more significant modifications to XOOPIC required by this work, and summarize the issues relevant to modeling relativistic electron-neutral collisions in a particle-in-cell code.

Multiple colliding-pulse injection schemes have been proposed as means for trapping electrons in the ultrashort acceleration buckets of laser-generated wake fields. The primary goal of this paper is to present a parameter study to determine the beams that can be obtained through collisions of collinear laser pulses in uniform plasma. The parameter study is through fully self-consistent, two-dimensional, particle-in-cell simulations, as previous work used only test-particle computations. To remove the multiple beams that can commonly be generated in colliding pulse injection, we use a cleanup pulse, a trailing laser pulse that absorbs the wake. The wake then no longer exists in the region where the trailing beamlets would be, and so the trailing beamlets no longer form. A series of simulations predicts that with such one can obtain single, short (⩽10fs) beams with a bunch charge of order 10pC, normalized emittance of order 2πμm, and energy spread of the order of 10%. The parameters of the beams are insensitive to the amplitude of the backward pulse above normalized amplitudes of abw≈0.4.

Diffractive spreading of a laser pulse imposes severe limitations on the acceleration length and maximum electron energy in the laser wake field accelerator (LWFA). Optical guiding of a laser pulse via plasma channels can extend the laser-plasma interaction distance over many Rayleigh lengths. Energy efficient coupling of laser pulses into and through plasma channels is very important for optimal LWFA performance. Results from simulation parameter studies on channel guiding using the particle-in-cell (PIC) code VORPAL [C. Nieter and J. R. Cary, J. Comput. Phys. 196, 448 (2004)] are presented and discussed. The effects that density ramp length and the position of the laser pulse focus have on coupling into channels are considered. Moreover, the effect of laser energy leakage out of the channel domain and the effects of tunneling ionization of a neutral gas on the guided laser pulse are also investigated. Power spectral diagnostics were developed and used to separate pump depletion from energy leakage. The results of these simulations show that increasing the density ramp length decreases the efficiency of coupling a laser pulse to a channel and increases the energy loss when the pulse is vacuum focused at the channel entrance. Then, large spot size oscillations result in increased energy leakage. To further analyze the coupling, a differential equation is derived for the laser spot size evolution in the plasma density ramp and channel profiles are simulated. From the numerical solution of this equation, the optimal spot size and location for coupling into a plasma channel with a density ramp are determined. This result is confirmed by the PIC simulations. They show that specifying a vacuum focus location of the pulse in front of the top of the density ramp leads to an actual focus at the top of the ramp due to plasma focusing, resulting in reduced spot size oscillations. In this case, the leakage is significantly reduced and is negligibly affected by ramp length, allowing for efficient use of channels with long ramps.

The plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) concept has been proposed [1] as a potential energy doubler for present or future electron-positron colliders. Recent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have shown [2] that the self-fields of the required electron beam driver can tunnel ionize neutral Li, leading to plasma wake dynamics differing significantly from that of a preionized plasma. It has also been shown [3], for the case of a preionized plasma, that the plasma wake of a positron driver differs strongly from that of an electron driver. We will present new PIC simulations, using the OOPIC [4] code, showing the effects of tunneling ionization on the plasma wake generated by high-density positron drivers. The results will be compared to previous work on electron drivers with tunneling ionization and positron drivers without ionization. Parameters relevant to the energy doubler and the upcoming E-164x experiment [5] at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center will be considered.