Ion-Focused Propagation of Relativistic Electron Beam in the Self-Generated Plasma in the Atmosphere

It is known that ion-focused regime can effectively suppress the expansion of relativistic electron beam (REB). By using particle in cell-Monte Carlo collision (PIC-MCC) method, the propagation of REBs in neutral gas is numerically investigated. The numerical results demonstrate that the beam body is charge neutralization and a stable IFR can be established. As a result, the beam transverse dimensions and longitudinal velocities keep close to the initial parameters. We also calculated the charge and current neutralization factors of REBs. Combined with envelope equations, we obtained the variations of beam envelopes, which agree well with the PIC simulations. However, both the energy loss and instabilities of REBs may lead to a low transport efficiency during long-range propagation. It has been proved that decreasing the initial pulse length of REBs can avoid the influence of electron avalanche. Using parts of REB pulses to build a long-distance IFR in advance can improve the beam quality of subsequent pulses. Further, a long-distance IFR may contribute to the implementation of long-range propagation of REBs in the space environment.