Simulation of Preaccelerated Particles in the Plasma Beatwave Accelerator

One-dimensional relativistic and electromagnetic simulations show the Plasma Beatwave Accelerator to be a viable approach to obtaining large accelerating fields. The plasma wave excited by Raman Forward Scattering has a longitudinal electric field on the order of 100 MeV/cm to 10 GeV/cm based on plasma densities of 1016 cm-3 to 1020 cm-3. The use of optical mixing to grow a plasma wave of the proper frequency above the noise level greatly reduces the laser intensity needed to drive the Raman instability. TeV energies for plasma electrons or preaccelerated charged particles in short distances appear feasible. Results where an injected electron beam is accelerated coherently from 1 MeV to 20 MeV in one millimeter are presented. Two-and three-dimensional effects must still be resolved.