Development of the Ionization-Injection Scheme for Generating High-Quality, Multi-GeV Electron Beams from a Plasma Wake Field Accelerator, Using the FACET Facility at SLAC

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Plasma acceleration is a cutting-edge technique for accelerating charged particles such as electrons using the electric field associated with a plasma structure, such as an electron plasma wave. The plasma structure is created using either ultra-short laser pulses or particle beams. This technique offers a way to build high performance particle accelerators of much smaller size than conventional accelerator techniques. The stimulating laser or electron beam creates a charge "wake" in the plasma. Particles "ride" this wave and are thus accelerated in this technique called plasma wakefield acceleration (PWA). Exploiting new modes for particle acceleration can have significant impact, as accelerators represent a significant technological tool addressing many applications in medicine and industry. This award will focus on developing ionization injection for plasma wakefield accelerators. To make a practical PWA device, a narrow energy spread of electrons of sufficient energy must be controlled and injected into the plasma. This award will allow the development of these electron bunches, called bunchlets. The work will include a demonstration that the bunchlets can be controlled and can be tuned to a desired energy. Intellectual Merit If successful this work will solve the problem of precisely (self-) placing an ultra-short electron bunch in the plasma wake that can extract a significant amount of energy from the wake and has the potential to generate extremely low emittance beams. The successful demonstration of the ideas presented here will greatly impact both future accelerator and light source development. Broader Impacts Modern beam physics/accelerator science needs a workforce with training in broader areas than currently offered within the conventional accelerator field such as laser science, plasma physics and atomic physics. This award will provide this type of training to excellent students with just such a broad background. If successful, the ideas pursued in this work could potentially transform future particle accelerator and light sources.