Electron Acceleration in a Non-Uniform Plasma

目前加速带电粒子(如电子)的方法依赖于所谓的加速器。以前的研究表明，强激光辐射与等离子体的相互作用可以将电子加速到非常高的能量。研究人员正在对激光能量与电子等离子体波的耦合进行更详细的研究，并正在研究电子密度、密度梯度、湍流和标度长度等等离子体参数对电子加速的影响。所获得的实验数据应能洞察由强辐射(激光)驱动的电子等离子体波的开始、增长和饱和。这些实验还提供了研究生在光学、激光、粒子加速、参数过程、气体中的电子放电以及对观测的理论和计算解释方面的经验。

Present methods of accelerating charged particles such as electrons depend upon so called accelerators. Previous research has shown interaction of intense laser radiation with a plasma that can accelerate electrons to very high energies. The researchers are carrying out more detailed studies on the coupling of laser energy to electron plasma waves and are investigating the effect of plasma parameters such as electron density, density gradient, turbulence, and scale length on the acceleration of electrons. The experimental data being acquired should provide insight into onset, growth, and saturation of electron plasma waves driven by intense radiation (laser). The experiments also provide graduate student experience in optics, lasers, particle acceleration, parmetric processes, electrical discharges in gases as well as theoretical and computational explanation of the observation.