Studies of space-charge effects in ultrashort electron bunches

Laser-driven plasma-based accelerators are capable of producing ultrashort electron bunches in which the longitudinal size is much smaller than the transverse size. We present theoretical studies of the transport of such electron bunches in vacuum. Space charge forces acting on the bunch are calculated using an ellipsoidal bunch shape model. The effects of space charge forces and energy spread on longitudinal and transverse bunch properties are evaluated for various bunch lengths, energies and amount of charge.