Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of laser wakefield experiments

Plasma accelerator methods offer the potential to reduce the size of moderate and high energy accelerators by factors of 1000. In the past few years great advances have been made in the production of low emittance, high quality (i.e., monoenergetic) electron beams with energies between .1 and 1 GeV using ultra-fast (<50 femtoseconds), high power (>10TW) lasers. The most noticeable of these advances were the experimental results presented in the 'Dream Beam' issue of Nature and in a recent issues of Physical Review Letters, Nature, and Nature Physics. The experimental progress have been made due to advances in lasers, diagnostics, plasma sources, and the knowledge of how to control of this highly nonlinear acceleration process. And this experimental progress has occurred simultaneously with and been in part due to advances in modeling capabilities. Using a hierarchy of particle-in-cell (PIC) codes OSIRIS, VORPAL, and QuickPIC, we have performed numerous full scale 3D simulations using parameters quoted from the Nature and Nature Physics articles. Our simulations have predicted results, provided agreement between simulations and experiments (within the shot-to-shot variations of the experiments), and provided insight into the complicated physics of the experiments. Most importantly, as our confidence in the fidelity of our methods increases we can now guide the planning of new experiments, and probe parameters that are not yet available. Thereby providing a 'road map' for generating high quality, high-charge 10 to 100 GeV electron beams for use in high-energy physics and light sources