Beam quality preservation studies in a laser-plasma accelerator with external injection for EuPRAXIA

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Over the past decade the production of multi-GeV electron beams from laser-driven plasma accelerators has been successfully demonstrated. However, demanding applications such as compact electron-driven X-ray sources require further improvements on beam energy spread and transverse emittance. One promising candidate to satisfy these requirements is to externally inject an electron beam generated by an RF linac into a laser-driven plasma accelerator. We present studies on the optimization of the final quality of the externally injected electron beam accelerated to GeV energy, using simulations with the particle-in-cell code OSIRIS. We quantified the effect of the injection phase on the quality of the accelerated beam. Tailoring the longitudinal plasma density profile by a smooth vacuum-plasma transition has been used to minimize the induced emittance growth.