The course aims at developing (physical and analytical/numerical) skills on compact laser-plasma accelerators employing
ultra-intense laser pulses that excite longitudinal plasma waves in under-critical plasmas.
Laser-plasma accelerators are nowdays able to generate accelerating gradients of tens of GV/m, i.e. about three orders of magnitude higher than those obtainable in standard accelerators.
During the course, the physics of ultraintense laser pulse generation will be introduced. Next, a linear and
a fully nonlinear treatment of the plasma waves and of the laser pulse (coupled) evolution will be given.
Finally, we will explore bunch-injection techniques (trapping of the electrons in the plasma wave), with enphasis on those schemes
aiming at generating high-quality bunches, i.e. bunches having enough quality to be employed in a multi-stage accelerator scheme or to trigger
an high-brilliance coherent X-ray source (Free Electron Laser).