Speaker
Mr
Thomas Heinemann
(Uni Strathclyde / DESY)
Description
Plasma wakefield accelerators driven by a beam of charged particles usually rely on a pre-formed plasma, such as a narrow channel of optically pre-ionized ambient gas utilizing a powerful laser system. While this method enables to provide plasma lengths and thus accelerating distances on the meter-scale, the width of the channel potentially, deliberately or inadvertently, varies significantly. When the channel’s transverse extent is on the same order as the blowout radius, small variations in the plasma channel width strongly affect the blowout dynamics, particularly its size and strength. Investigating the influence of the channel dimensions on the wakefield provides important key insights for designing and realizing a particle driven plasma wakefield accelerator with stable acceleration conditions on meter scales. Furthermore, sophisticated optical plasma generation offers precise control over the plasma channel shape and thus enabling to deliberately tune the electromagnetic field configuration along the acceleration. We report on our insights gained during the E210 experimental campaign at FACET/SLAC accompanied by particle-in-cell simulations.
Primary author
Mr
Thomas Heinemann
(Uni Strathclyde / DESY)
Co-authors
Mr
Ahmad Fahim Habib
(SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and Cockcroft Institute, Sci-Tech, Daresbury, UK.)
Dr
Aihua Deng
(UCLA)
Mr
Alexander Knetsch
(Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY)
Mr
Andrew Beaton
(University of Strathclyde)
Prof.
Bernhard Hidding
(University of Strathclyde / Hamburg)
Dr
Brendan O'Shea
(SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Mr
Daniel Ullmann
(University of Strathclyde)
Mr
Georg Wittig
(Universität Hamburg, CFEL)
Dr
Grace Manahan
(University of Strathclyde)
Prof.
James Rosenzweig
(UCLA)
Dr
Jonathan SMITH
(Tech-X UK Ltd)
Mark Hogan
(SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Prof.
Michael Litos
(University of Colorado Boulder)
Mr
Oliver Karger
(University of Hamburg, Institute for Experimental Physics)
Mr
Panagiotis Delinikolas
(University of Strathclyde)
Mr
Paul Scherkl
(University of Strathclyde)
Dr
Ralph Assmann
(DESY)
Dr
Vitaly Yakimenko
(SLAC)
