ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the motivations for pursuit of plasma acceleration, and presents the framework that helps to estimate the parameters of laser plasma-based light sources. By using plasma as an accelerating medium, one can remove the limitation of the accelerating gradient relating to the material’s damage threshold. The plasma wakefield acceleration method uses a short, high energy particle bunch to excite the plasma. Similarly, a short laser pulse of high intensity can be used in a laser wakefield acceleration method. In both of these cases, a high amplitude plasma wave is created, which can then be used for acceleration. Barrier suppression ionization occurs when the laser field distorts the potential of an atom in such a way that the electron can freely escape the potential well. The high contrast ratio is the key parameter in plasma acceleration, as even a relatively low intensity can either ionize or destroy the target long before the arrival of the main high-intensity short pulse.