Laser Beat-Wave Acceleration near Critical Density

Abstract

We consider high-density laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) in the nonrelativistic regime of the laser. In place of an ultrashort laser pulse, we can excite wakefields via the Laser Beat Wave (BW) that accesses this near-critical density regime. Here, we use 1D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations to study BW acceleration using two co-propagating lasers in a near-critical density material. We show that BW acceleration near the critical density allows for acceleration of electrons to greater than keV energies at far smaller intensities, such as 1014 W/cm2, through the low phase velocity dynamics of wakefields that are excited in this scheme. Near-critical density laser BW acceleration has many potential applications including high-dose radiation therapy.