Speaker
Description
Plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) offers accelerating fields up to two orders of magnitude higher than conventional RF cavities. Achieving TeV-scale electron energies for high-energy physics experiments, however, requires multiple acceleration stages in laser- and electron-driven PWFA schemes.
The AWAKE experiment at CERN explores a proton-driven approach, utilizing the kJ-level energy of proton bunches from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), for single-stage acceleration. A key challenge in scaling this technology is the development of long, highly uniform plasma sources—capable of maintaining electron density uniformity better than 0.25%—to extend acceleration lengths from tens to hundreds of meters.
This talk presents the development and characterization of long plasma sources for PWFA applications. We present results from a 10-meter pulsed-DC discharge plasma source (DPS), designed for scalability, achieving electron densities of 1–30 × 10$^{14}$ cm$^{-3}$ in argon, xenon, and helium. The DPS's performance was assessed in the AWAKE experiment by propagating the 400 GeV proton bunch through the plasma and observing the induced bunch self-modulation, necessary for resonant excitation of a wakefield in the plasma. These results highlight the potential of scalable plasma sources to meet the demands of future plasma wakefield acceleration applications.
