Self-adaptive stabilization and quality boost for electron beams from all-optical plasma wakefield accelerators

Shot-to-shot fluctuations in electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators present a significant challenge for applications. Here, we show that instead of using such fluctuating beams directly, employing them to drive a plasma photocathode-based wakefield refinement stage can produce secondary electron beams with higher quality and greater stability. Our simulation-based analysis reveals that drive beam jitters are partially compensated by both the insensitivity of beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration and the decoupled physics of plasma photocathode injection. While beam-driven, dephasing-free plasma wakefield acceleration mitigates energy and energy-spread fluctuations, intrinsically synchronized plasma photocathode injection compensates charge and current jitters of incoming electron beams, and provides a simultaneous quality boost. Our findings suggest that plasma photocathodes could be ideal injectors for hybrid laser-plasma wakefield accelerators, and nurture prospects for demanding applications such as free-electron lasers.