Novel Applications of Plasma-Based Accelerators: from Non-relativistic Particles to Radiation Generation

The past years have seen a growing interest in plasma-based accelerator technology since it provides a route to more compact, ecological yet powerful accelerators. However, even well-established acceleration techniques [1, 2] are only effective with particles traveling at speeds close to the speed of light (relativistic particles), leading to the exclusion of heavier particles (with respect to electrons), e.g. muons [3] or pions from the acceleration process.

In this PhD work, we propose an innovative method to fill this gap. We exploit structured light pulses with variable group velocities [4, 5, 6], to demonstrate, with theory and numerical calculations, that such property, combined with a tailored density profile [7] for the plasma, can give us the necessary control over the velocity of the wake to unlock the possibility of accelerating these particles from non-relativistic to relativistic velocities in a single acceleration stage in a plasma accelerator.

Furthermore, our ongoing research explores the potential application of plasma-based acceleration technology in coherent radiation production. We investigate the development of instabilities as a long particle beam propagates through a plasma, that is a possible way of generating coherent radiation.