TY - JOUR

T1 - Ion dynamics driven by a strongly nonlinear plasma wake

AU - Khudiakov, V. K.

AU - Lotov, K. V.

AU - Downer, M. C.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank T Silva and J Vieira for providing the OSIRIS output data from [], which were used as input data for the simulations presented, and thank M Hogan, A Sosedkin, V Yakimenko, and R Zgadzaj for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project 20-12-00062. Contributions of M C Downer were supported by the US National Science Foundation (Grant PHY-2010435) and the US Department of Energy (Grant DE-SC0011617). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd.

PY - 2022/4

Y1 - 2022/4

N2 - In plasma wakefield accelerators, the wave excited in the plasma eventually breaks and leaves behind slowly changing fields and currents that perturb the ion density background. We study this process numerically using the example of a Facility for Advanced aCcelerator Experimental Tests (FACET) experiment where the wave is excited by an electron bunch in the bubble regime in a radially bounded plasma. Four physical effects underlie the dynamics of ions: (1) attraction of ions toward the axis by the fields of the driver and the wave, resulting in formation of a density peak, (2) generation of ion-acoustic solitons following the decay of the density peak, (3) positive plasma charging after wave breaking, leading to acceleration of some ions in the radial direction, and (4) plasma pinching by the current generated during the wave-breaking. The interplay of these effects results in the formation of various radial density profiles, which are difficult to produce in any other way.

AB - In plasma wakefield accelerators, the wave excited in the plasma eventually breaks and leaves behind slowly changing fields and currents that perturb the ion density background. We study this process numerically using the example of a Facility for Advanced aCcelerator Experimental Tests (FACET) experiment where the wave is excited by an electron bunch in the bubble regime in a radially bounded plasma. Four physical effects underlie the dynamics of ions: (1) attraction of ions toward the axis by the fields of the driver and the wave, resulting in formation of a density peak, (2) generation of ion-acoustic solitons following the decay of the density peak, (3) positive plasma charging after wave breaking, leading to acceleration of some ions in the radial direction, and (4) plasma pinching by the current generated during the wave-breaking. The interplay of these effects results in the formation of various radial density profiles, which are difficult to produce in any other way.

KW - ion-acoustic solitons

KW - plasma wakefield acceleration

KW - strongly nonlinear wake

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125497676&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/cd4574eb-58d6-3905-a0e7-d87c353b501f/

U2 - 10.1088/1361-6587/ac4523

DO - 10.1088/1361-6587/ac4523

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85125497676

VL - 64

JO - Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

JF - Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

SN - 0741-3335

IS - 4

M1 - 045003

ER -