Numerical simulations of intense charged particle beam propagation in a dielectric wakefield accelerator

The propagation of an intense electron beam through a long dielectric tube is a critical issue for the success of the dielectric wakefield acceleration scheme. Due to the head‐tail instability, a high current charged particle beam cannot propagate long distance without external focusing. In this paper we examine the beam handling and control problem in the dielectric wakefield accelerator. We show that for the designed 15.6 GHz and 20 GHz dielectric structures a 150 MeV, 40–100 nC beam can be controlled and propagate up to 5 meters without significant particle losses by using external applied focusing and defocusing channel (FODO) around the dielectric tube. Particle dynamics of the accelerated beam is also studied. Our results show that for typical dielectric acceleration structures, the head‐tail instabilities can be conveniently controlled in the same way as the driver beam.