A new model called envelop model has been developped in the opensource and collaborative Particle-In-Cell code Smilei. It has been developed by Francesco Massimo and Arnaud Beck (LLR) based on published methods and the Maison de la Simulation has participated to the optimization of this module. This model uses an approximation to propagate the laser and model the interaction with the ambient matter. It enables to importantly reduce the simulation cost of the simulations by doing 3D simulation at the cost slightly above the 2D. Both with the Cartesian and the cylindrical geometry can be used with this implementation. It is particularly suitable for simulation laser-wakefield electron acceleration scenarios. This is here the main reason of this development.

This model has been used during the "grand challenge" on the super-computer Irene Joliot-Curie. It will be used to simulate experiments on the future multi-petawatt laser Apollon located in the plateau of Saclay. Some results have been published in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion in 2019 by F. Massimo and his team. The article is available via this link.

Link toward the article published in journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion in 2019 by F. Massimo et al.
Link toward the proceedings article of the 13th conference on Computational Accelerator Physics in 2019 by F. Massimo et al.