  In order to demonstrate acceleration of electrons to relativistic scales by
an on chipdielectric laser accelerator (DLA), a ponderomotive focusing scheme
capable of capturingand transporting electrons through nanometer-scale
apertures over extended interactionlengths has been proposed. We present a
Matlab-based numerical code (SHarD) utilizinga spatial harmonic expansion of
the fields within the dielectric structure to simulate theevolution of the beam
phase space distribution in this scheme. The code can be usedto optimize
key-parameters for the accelerator performance such as the final
energy,transverse spot size evolution and total number of electrons accelerated
through currentlyfabricated structures. Eventually, the simulation model will
be applied to inform thephase mask profile to be added to a pulse front tilt
drive laser pulse using a liquid crystalmask in the experimental setup being
assembled at UCLA Pegasus Laboratory.
