Electron acceleration of a surface wave propagating in wiggler-assisted plasma

Abstract

In this paper, we study the electron acceleration by a surface plasma wave (SPW) propagating through two parallel metal sheets in the presence of wiggler magnetic field strength. The configuration of interest consists of a helical magnetostatic wiggler, an external magnetic field and two parallel metal half-spaces. Dispersion relation of SPW in the attendance of helical magnetostatic wiggler is recognized and observed as compared with that of without wiggler field. A numerical calculation in Matlab software was developed by employing the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method for studying the electron energy and electron trajectory in SPW. Numerical results depict that with increasing of [Formula: see text]-parameter [Formula: see text] is the ratio of wiggler frequency to plasma frequency), minimum modes of SPW have an increasing trend and with increase of the wiggler frequency, the normalized frequencies decreased and a gap appeared between them. Furthermore, it is seen that with increase of the [Formula: see text]-parameter, the value of the kinetic energy as compared with the absence of the wiggler magnetic field increased. In fact, the electron energy gained is higher in the presence of a helical magnetostatic wiggler as compared with the absence of wiggler field. In addition, it is observed that due to effects of the wiggler field and SPW field, the electron traverses more distance in the propagation direction of the laser pulse.