Date of Completion

Spring 5-29-2024

Thesis Advisor(s)

Peter Schweitzer, Thomas Katsouleas

Honors Major

Physics

Disciplines

Plasma and Beam Physics

Abstract

We investigate the previously proposed role of collisional damping in plasmonic wakefield accelerators. Wakefields driven in a doped semi-conductor will exist in differing regimes dependent on the driving beam’s intensity. At low intensities, the mobility of free carrier electrons is limited. Here, wakefields will be small if the mean free path of an electron is short compared to the quiver amplitude of a free electron. After reaching a threshold intensity, conduction electrons in the semiconductor will be driven to such high speeds that their coulomb cross section will drop sharply. Here the resulting wakes will resemble those in a hollow collision less plasma, with its density equal to that of the conduction electrons in the semiconductor tube. Driving to even higher intensities, the entire tube will be ionized by the charged particle beam’s pulse. Lattice effects and laser drivers are briefly discussed.

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