Simulation of ultrarelativistic beam dynamics in the plasma wake-field accelerator

With two-dimensional hybrid code LCODE, the long-term dynamics of two drivers in plasma is studied. The bunch train is shown to produce a well-controlled wake-field good for particle acceleration. In this wake-field, a narrow witness bunch can be accelerated with a small energy spread (several percent), a high energy gain (exceeding the initial driver energy), and the driver-witness efficiency about 20%. The long shaped bunch is unusable for particle acceleration, since it is rapidly destroyed by the transverse two-stream instability.