Self focusing in a spatially modulated electrostatic field particle accelerator

Abstract

In the present analysis, we study the action of a three-dimensional (3D) modulated electrostatic wave over a charged particle. Meanwhile, the particle’s velocity is smaller than the phase-velocity of the carrier, and the particle could be reflected by the potential or could pass through the potential with no significant change in the longitudinal velocity—and its dynamics could be described by a ponderomotive approximation. Otherwise, the particle is trapped by the potential and it is accelerated towards the speed of light, independently of the initial particle’s phase—in this case, the ponderomotive approximation is no longer valid. During the acceleration process, numerical simulations show the particle is focused, simultaneously. These results suggest the accelerator proposed here is promising.