E-157: A 1.4 Meter-long Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment Using a 30GeV Electron Beam from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Linac

Technical Report · Wed Apr 26 04:00:00 EDT 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/763745· OSTI ID:763745

Hogan, Mark J ^[1]

---

1. SLAC

In the E-157 experiment now being conducted at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), a 30 GeV electron beam of 2 x 10{sup 10} electrons in a 0.65mm long bunch is propagated through a 1.4m long Lithium plasma of density up to 2 x 10{sup 14} e{sup {minus}}/cm{sup 3}. The initial beam density is greater than the plasma density, and the head of the bunch expels the plasma electrons leaving behind a uniform ion channel with transverse focusing fields of up to several thousand Tesla/m. The initial transverse beam size with sigma = 50--100 mu-m is larger than the matched size of 5 mu-m resulting in up to three beam envelope oscillations within the plasma. Time integrated optical transition radiation (OTR) is used to study the transverse beam profile immediately before and after the plasma to characterize the transverse beam dynamics as a function of plasma density. The head of the bunch deposits energy into plasma wakes, resulting in longitudinal accelerating fields which are witnessed by the tail of the same bunch. A time-resolved Cherenkov imaging system is located in an energy dispersive plane downstream of the plasma. It images the beam onto a streak camera allowing time-resolved measurements of the beam energy spectrum as a function of plasma density. Preliminary experimental data from the first three runs are compared to theory and computer simulations.

• Research Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 763745
• Report Number(s): SLAC-PUB-8352
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
BEAM BUNCHING
ELECTRON BEAMS
GEV RANGE 10-100
PERFORMANCE
WAKEFIELD ACCELERATORS