Wakefields in THz cylindrical dielectric lined waveguides driven by femtosecond electron bunches

•CCR driven by a femtosecond electron bunch in a dielectric waveguide was studied.•THz CCR at the fundamental mode was obtained by adjusting the waveguide geometry.•The relevant accelerating gradient seen by a witness bunch was as high as 2 GV/m.•Such wakefield effects have promising applications in compact radiation sources.

This paper reports the wakefield effects driven by a high-intensity relativistic electron bunch in a dielectric lined waveguide (DLW). A state-of-the-art electron bunch is employed to serve as the drive bunch, which has an rms length of 10 µm, i.e. 33 fs, and a charge of 200 pC. Such bunch parameters are comparable to those of DESY’s FLASH and SLAC’s LCLS and FACET facilities. It is demonstrated that coherent Cherenkov radiation (CCR) at the fundamental mode with frequency above 1 THz and accelerating gradient as high as 2 GV/m can be obtained in a single layer cylindrical diamond-DLW structure, as long as the geometrical parameters of the DLW are properly selected to match the drive bunch. Wakefield-induced energy modulations on the drive bunch itself are studied as well, which can be used to reduce its energy spread or to produce microbunches with much shorter length from it. The simulated results agree well with the theoretical predictions. Such wakefields can be used to accelerate or modulate electron bunches with ultra-high gradients, and produce high power THz radiations directly. These properties have potential applications in the fields of compact colliders and advanced radiation sources.