High-field plasma acceleration in a high-ionization-potential gas
- Univ. Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau (France)
- Univ. of Oslo (Norway)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
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
Web of Science
Hybrid LWFA–PWFA staging as a beam energy and brightness transformer: conceptual design and simulations
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journal | June 2019 |
Directions in plasma wakefield acceleration
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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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