UC Berkeley

The use of higher-order modes is proposed to control the transverse wakefield structure generated by a laser pulse propagating through a plasma channel. This can be done in the quasilinear regime in both the Laguerre-Gaussian and Hermite-Gaussian bases for appropriate laser-plasma parameters, independent of the longitudinal field. Control of the wake can be achieved by using modes of different mode numbers but with matched phase velocities to generate tunable, matched laser propagation. The wake can be tuned by modifying the initial phase and amplitude of each mode. In addition, it is shown that two different higher order modes can propagate at the same group velocity by appropriately tuning the frequencies. Geometric and frequency tuning of the laser driver allows for greater control of the transverse phase-space of the accelerated electron bunch.