Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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AKBP: Arbeitskreis Beschleunigerphysik
AKBP 12: Novel Accelerators I
AKBP 12.5: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 12. März 2026, 10:45–11:00, SCH/A117
Radiation Signatures from Injection Lasers in Plasma Wakefield Accelerators — •Finn-Ole Carstens1,2, Alexander Debus1, Klaus Steiniger1, Michael Bussmann1, Fabia Dietrich1,2, Maxwell LaBerge1, Susanne Schoebel1, Jessica Tiebel1,2, Patrick Ufer1,2, Nico Wrobel1,2, Arie Irman1, Ulrich Schramm1,2, and Richard Pausch1 — 1Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany — 2Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Rossendorf
Plasma-wakefield acceleration driven by electron beams from laser-wakefield accelerators enables compact, two-stage schemes of electron accelerators. The trojan horse injection method uses a transverse, femtosecond laser pulse to ionize electrons inside the first plasma cavity and promises high-brightness electron bunches. Unexpectedly, experiments showed a distinct radiation feature in shadowgraphy images whenever this injection laser interacted with the plasma wake. This effect that turned out to be crucial for timing calibration but was not understood.
We investigate this signal using particle-in-cell simulations equipped with an in-situ imaging plugin based on Fourier propagation, which models the shadowgraphy diagnostic directly during runtime. This approach allows tracing the formation of the observed feature and reveals that it originates from Thomson scattering of the injection laser of the sheath electrons of the PWFA cavity. In this contribution, we present the mechanism behind the signal and show how it can be used to infer structural properties of the plasma cavity.
Keywords: Laser-Plasma Accelerator; Particle-in-Cell Code; PWFA; PIConGPU