May 5 – 10, 2019
MedILS
Europe/Berlin timezone

First demonstration of a hybrid laser-electron-beam driven plasma wakefield accelerator

May 9, 2019, 12:15 PM
15m
Main Hall (MedILS)

Main Hall

MedILS

Speaker

T. Kurz (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Radiation Physics)

Description

Plasma based electron acceleration is widely considered as a promising concept for a compact electron accelerator with broad range of future applications from high energy particle colliders to photon science. These accelerators can be powered by either ultra-intense laser beams (LWFA) or relativistic high-current particle beams (PWFA).
Here, we report on a novel approach to combine both schemes in a truly compact experimental setup. In our “LWFA + PWFA” hybrid accelerator, the electron beam generated by a LWFA stage drives a subsequent PWFA stage where a witness beam is trapped and accelerated. This strategy aims to combine the unique features of both plasma acceleration techniques, the LWFA stage provides with a compact source of high-current electron beams required as PWFA drivers, while the PWFA stage acts as an energy and brightness transformer for the LWFA output$^1$.
In this work, we show the first experimental evidence of accelerating a distinct witness bunch in a LWFA-driven PWFA (LPWFA) within only about one millimeter acceleration distance. In the self-ionizing case, we observe witness energies of around 50 MeV. By utilizing a counter-propagating pre-ionization laser, the interaction with the plasma becomes stronger, increasing the final energies to around 120 MeV. Thus, yielding a field gradient of (46$\pm$11) GeV/m which is comparable to what has been shown at large scale facilities$^2$.

References:

  1. A. Martinez de la Ossa et al., “Hybrid LWFA | PWFA Staging as a Beam Energy and Brightness Transformer: Conceptual Design and Simulations”, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. Accepted for publication. https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.04640
  2. Corde, S. et al., Nat. Commun. 7, 11898 (2016).
Working group Laser-driven electron acceleration

Primary author

T. Kurz (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Radiation Physics)

Co-authors

T. Heinemann (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY; Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde) S. Schoebel J. P. Couperus Cabadağ (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden -Rossendorf, Institute of Radiation Physics) O. Kononenko (LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris) Y.-Y. Chang (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Radiation Physics) M. Bussmann (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf) S. Corde (LOA, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris) A. Debus (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Radiation Physics) H. Ding (LMU Munich) A. Döpp (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Max Planck Institut für Quantenoptik) M. F. Gilljohann (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Max Planck Institut für Quantenoptik) B. Hidding (Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde; Cockcroft Institute, Sci-Tech Daresbury) S. Karsch (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Max Planck Institut für Quantenoptik) Mr A. Köhler (HZDR) R. Pausch (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Radiation Physics) Mr O. Zarini (HZDR) U. Schramm (HZDR) Dr A. Martinez de la Ossa (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY) A. Irman (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Radiation Physics)

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