Robust autoresonant excitation in the plasma beat-wave accelerator

The robust autoresonant excitation in the plasma beat wave accelerator was studied. A modified version of the plasma beat-wave accelerator scheme which was based on autoresonant phase locking of the Langmuir wave to the slowly chirped beat frequency of the driving lasers by passage through resonance was proposed. It was found that peak electric fields above standard detuning limits were readily attainable, and the plasma wave excitation was robust to large variation in plasma density or the chirp rates. It was also demonstrated that the scheme could be implemented in existing chirped pulse amplification or CO₂ laser systems.