Laser Beat Wave Acceleration in a Dense, Magnetized Plasma

Recent research on laser plasma acceleration has shown that through the use of Laser Beat-Waves (BW) in near-critical density plasmas, wakefields can be generated and used to accelerate electrons to keV energies using relatively low laser intensities on the order of 10¹⁴ W/cm². In this study, we use the Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code Smieli to conduct 1D simulations of BW acceleration in a magnetized plasma. Specifically, we investigate the dynamics of a long single pulse and of beat-waves of varying compositions of Left-Handed Circularly Polarized (L-Wave) pulses and Right-Handed Circularly Polarized (R-Wave) pulses at various frequencies, including below the plasma frequency, with wave propagation parallel and anti-parallel to the direction of the external magnetic field. We find that we are able to excite wakes with some control of the wake wavenumber through the external magnetic field.