Simulations of the Acceleration of Externally Injected Electrons in a Plasma Excited in the Linear Regime

We have investigated numerically the coupling between a 10 \si{MeV} electron bunch of high charge (\SI{> 100}{pc}) with a laser generated accelerating plasma wave. Our results show that a high efficiency coupling can be achieved using a \SI{50}{TW}, \SI{100}{\micro \meter} wide laser beam, yielding accelerating field above \SI{1}{ GV/m}. We propose an experiment where these predictions could be tested.