Electron dephasing is a major gain-inhibiting effect in plasma-based accelerators. A novel method is proposed to overcome dephasing, in which the modulation of a modest [~O(10 kG)], axial, uniform magnetic field in the acceleration channel leads to densification of the plasma through magnetic compression, enabling direct, time-resolved control of the plasma wave properties. The methodology is b...

In the Plasma Beat Wave Accelerator, acceleration is achieved by a longitudinal electrostatic field produced as a result of charge separation generated by a plasma wave traveling close to the speed of light. The plasma wave in turn is produced by two colinear laser pulses whose amplitude is modulated so that the beat frequency matches the plasma frequency. Optical mixing and Raman forward scatt...

Plasma-based accelerators driven by either intense lasers1 or charged particle beams2 can accelerate electrons positrons with extremely high gradients compared conventional radio-frequency accelerators. For their use as next-generation light sources and in energy frontier colliders3, beams good stability, quality, controllable polarization excellent reproducibility4,5 are required. The accelera...

Our program for an experimental plasma wake field accelerator (PWFA) to take place at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) facility, in the recently proposed blow-out regime]11 relies on the propagation of an intense electron beam through an underdense plasma with a minimum of degradation. This paper presents a near-equilibrium model of beam propagation using the Maxwell-Vlasov equations gov...