ABSTRACT
Plasma-based particle accelerators are turning out to be promising devices, at both the highest energies (100 GeV and up) for large-scale applications, and in the range 100 MeV to 1 GeV that is used in material science, biology, nuclear science, and medicine. The plasma-based approach offers the possibility to vastly increase acceleration gradients (about 1000 times more than conventional accelerators), while decreasing the size and cost of the machines, to the extent that the next generation of powerful accelerators may just occupy a small room, and become so-called ‘tabletop’ accelerators. A detailed theoretical and experimental descriptions of plasma-based accelerators are given in this chapter. The concept of wakefield acceleration using intense laser systems is also discussed. Different plasma-based acceleration techniques such as plasma beat-wave accelerator (PBWA), laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA), self-modulated laser wakefield acceleration (SM-LFWA), and plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) are investigated in depth. Also, the detailed description of the acceleration of ions and photons is given in the chapter.
