This report reviews the research on a new accelerator concept which uses an intense laser light, that is to say, the plasma beat-wave accelerator. Intense colinear laser beams ω
o k
o and ω
1 k
1 shone on a plasma with a frequency seperation equal to the electron plasma frequency
ωP can creat a large coherent longitudinal electric field of a few tens GV/m by the laser beat excitation of plasma oscillations. Accompanying favourable and deleterious physical effects using this process for a high energy beatwave accelerator are discussed : dephasing, pump depletion, plasma turbulence effects, plasma fibre effects, surfatron, wakeless triple-soliton, etc.
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