Conveners
WG8: Plasma sources and related diagnostics
- Angelo Biagioni (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)
- Malte Kaluza (University of Jena, Helmholtz-Institute Jena)
Capturing the target behavior during a high-intensity laser-solid interaction is crucial
to understanding the interplay of fundamental processes such as ionization, collisions, and
plasma kinetics. Furthermore, the pre-plasma evolution caused by the laser's rising edge is key for enhancing the properties of the accelerated particles and secondary X-ray sources. We present experimentally and...
We report on electron beam collimation using a passive plasma lens, integrated directly into a laser wakefield accelerator stage operating in the high-charge regime. The lens is created by reshaping the gas density profile of a super-sonic jet at the beam’s exit side through an obstacle mounted above the jet. It reduces the beam’s divergence by a factor of two, to below 1 mrad...
Novel particle accelerators based on plasma technology allow a drastic reduction in size, due to the high accelerating and focusing fields established inside plasmas. In this regard, we present a compact gas-filled plasma discharge capillary for particle accelerators applications, including staged wakefield acceleration and active plasma lensing. A first design of the plasma source is...
We present an experimental and simulated investigation of helium plasma glow light dynamics and its application to the physical measurements of a plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) plasma source. We model the plasma formation with a split-step Fourier optical propagation code and a particle-in-cell (PIC) code. We then simulate the plasma expansion dynamics using a plasma fluid code. Using a...
Scalable plasma sources R&D for the AWAKE experiment at CERN focus on two technologies as alternatives to the existing laser-ionised rubidium vapor plasma source: the Helicon Plasma Source (HPS) and the Discharge Plasma Source (DPS). As a proof of principle of such alternative sources, a 10 m long DPS has been designed, built and tested with a 400 GeV proton beam over a 3 weeks run in the...
Gas jets are an attractive technology for high repetition rate LWFA as they are less prone to damage and therefore last longer than other options. However, it has proved difficult to tailor the gas density profile with jets as for capillaries and cells which has restricted their utility. We report on preliminary experimental measurements of a novel gas jet design suitable for density downramp...
The development of plasma sources that enable the reliable and reproducible generation of high quality beams is key to moving closer to our goal of powering real-world applications with laser-plasma accelerators. An ideal design must feature a robust injection method with precise control over the trapped phase space, allow for tunability of the subsequent acceleration process through density...
