Wake Wave Generation - 2D PIC Simulations

This simulation represents intense laser beam focused on the rear side of the plasma target. Plasma is made of two types of particles - electrons and protons. In particle-in-cell simulations, we use macro-particles, where 1 macro-particle represents many real particles.
Here you can see only electrons, protons are not interesting in this case since their weight is much higher (and therefore they do not move). Behind the laser pulse, plasma waves are excited (density spikes moving with the group velocity of the laser beam). Under certain conditions, electrons may be trapped inside the wave and accelerated (this is called laser-wakefield acceleration - LWFA).