RESUMO
The transverse stability of the target is crucial for obtaining high quality ion beams using the laser radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) mechanism. In this Letter, a theoretical model and supporting two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are presented to clarify the physical mechanism of the transverse instability observed in the RPA process. It is shown that the density ripples of the target foil are mainly induced by the coupling between the transverse oscillating electrons and the quasistatic ions, a mechanism similar to the oscillating two stream instability in the inertial confinement fusion research. The predictions of the mode structure and the growth rates from the theory agree well with the results obtained from the PIC simulations in various regimes, indicating the model contains the essence of the underlying physics of the transverse breakup of the target.
RESUMO
We propose and analyze a scheme to generate enhanced ultrabroadband terahertz (THz) radiation through coherent transition radiation emitted by ultrashort electron beams based on a 10.5 m beamline at Tsinghua University. The proposed scheme involves the initial compression of the electron beam with a few hundred pC charges using a velocity bunching scheme (i.e., RF compression) in an under-compression mode instead of the usual critical-compression mode in order to maintain a positive energy chirp at the exit of the traveling wave accelerator. After a long drift segment, the particles in the tail catch up with the bunch head. More than 80% of the particles are distributed in a spike with an rms length less than 20 fs. Such beams correspond to an ultrabroadband coherent transition radiation (CTR) spectrum of 0.1 THz to 25 THz, with the single-pulse THz radiation energy of up to 50 µJ. The principle of CTR and under-compression mode of velocity bunching are introduced in this paper. And the ASTRA simulation parameters and the stability of the system are also discussed.