On Certain Novel Effects in Plasma-based Particle Acceleration

From the inventor of an all-optical Positron Accelerator which promises to revolutionize the applications of high-energy antimatter beams and the pioneer of non-linear ion-wake model which has been experimentally confirmed by the E-224 project at the SLAC national Lab in collaboration with Downer group at Univ. of Texas Austin. The invention of this author which stems from this dissertation is summarized as follows. An all-optical centimeter-scale laser-plasma positron accelerator is modeled to produce quasi-monoenergetic beams with tunable ultrarelativistic energies. A new principle elucidated here describes the trapping of divergent positrons that are part of a laser-driven electromagnetic shower with a large energy spread and their acceleration into a quasimonoenergetic positron beam in a laser-driven plasma wave. Proof of this principle using analysis and particle-in-cell simulations demonstrates that, under limits defined here, existing lasers can accelerate hundreds of MeV pC quasi-monoenergetic positron bunches. By providing an affordable alternative to kilometer-scale radio-frequency accelerators, this compact positron accelerator opens up new avenues of research.