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Title: High-field plasma acceleration in a high-ionization-potential gas

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11898· OSTI ID:1272103

Plasma accelerators driven by particle beams are a very promising future accelerator technology as they can sustain high accelerating fields over long distances with high energy efficiency. They rely on the excitation of a plasma wave in the wake of a drive beam. To generate the plasma, a neutral gas can be field-ionized by the head of the drive beam, in which case the distance of acceleration and energy gain can be strongly limited by head erosion. In our research, we overcome this limit and demonstrate that electrons in the tail of a drive beam can be accelerated by up to 27 GeV in a high-ionization-potential gas (argon), boosting their initial 20.35 GeV energy by 130%. Particle-in-cell simulations show that the argon plasma is sustaining very high electric fields, of ~150 GV m-1, over ~20 cm. Lastly, the results open new possibilities for the design of particle beam drivers and plasma sources.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1272103
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 7; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 11 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Hybrid LWFA–PWFA staging as a beam energy and brightness transformer: conceptual design and simulations
  • Martinez de la Ossa, A.; Assmann, R. W.; Bussmann, M.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2151 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0175
journal June 2019
Directions in plasma wakefield acceleration
  • Hidding, B.; Foster, B.; Hogan, M. J.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2151 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2019.0215
journal June 2019
Hybrid LWFA $\vert$ PWFA Staging as a Beam Energy and Brightness Transformer : Conceptual Design and Simulations text January 2019

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