Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Lower-Density CM-Scale Capillary Channels

Capillary channels of cm-length and at plasma density low compared to gas jets are promising setups for low noise laser wakefield acceleration. Computationally, however, the large discrepancy of the length scales of the plasma and the laser are a big challenge. Methods are therefore sought that relax the need to concurrently resolve both length scales. Average methods, which split the electromagnetic field into a fast and a slowly varying part, allow to relax the constraint to resolve the laser wavelength. Such an envelope model is currently being incorporated into the VORPAL plasma simulation code. Simulation results for benchmark cases and for laser pulse propagation in a cm-scale channel are presented.