Speaker
Description
Utilizing laser-wakefield accelerated (LWFA) electrons to drive a
plasma-wakefield accelerator (PWFA) holds great promise for realizing
centimeter-scale electron accelerators providing ultra-high brightness
beams. Recent experiments at HZDR could demonstrate for the first time
such an electron acceleration in a nonlinear PWFA plasma wakefield. For
driving this compact hybrid accelerator setup, high-charge electron
bunches from LWFA self-truncated ionization injection were used.
In this talk, we present recent results of the accompanying simulation
campaign performed with the 3D3V particle-in-cell code PIConGPU. These
simulations model the geometry, density distributions, laser modes, and
gas dopings as determined in the experiments. The simulation conditions
resemble the experiment to a very high degree and thus provide good
comparability between experiment and simulation. Additionally, the
wealth of information provided by the in-situ data analysis of PIConGPU
provides insight into the plasma dynamics, otherwise inaccessible in
experiments.
From an algorithmic and computational perspective, we modeled the hybrid
accelerator from start to end in a single simulation scenario. We
discuss the associated challenges in maintaining numerical stability and
experimental comparability of these long-duration simulations.
| Working group | Theory and computation |
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