Beyond injection: Trojan horse underdense photocathode plasma wakefield acceleration
Abstract Not Provided
Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Andonian, G.
Abstract Not Provided
We describe a comprehensive project, funded under the DARPA AXiS program, to develop an all-optical table-top X-ray FEL based on dielectric acceleration and electromagnetic undulators, yielding a compact source of coherent X-rays for medical and related applications. The compactness of this source demands that high field (>GV/m) acceleration and undulation-inducing fields be employed, thus giving rise to the project's acronym: GV/m AcceLerator And X-ray Integrated Experiment (GALAXIE). There are numerous physics and technical hurdles to surmount in this ambitious scenario, and the integrated solutions include: a biharmonic photonic TW structure, 200 micron wavelength electromagnetic undulators, 5 {mu}m laser development, ultra-high brightness magnetized/asymmetric emittance electron beam generation, and SASE FEL operation. We describe the overall design philosophy of the project, the innovative approaches to addressing the challenges presented by the design, and the significant progress towards realization of these approaches in the nine months since project initialization.
For wakefield based acceleration schemes, use of an asymmetric (or linearly ramped) drive bunch current profile has been predicted to enhance the transformer ratio and generate large accelerating wakes. We discuss plans and initial results for producing such bunches using the 20 to 23 GeV electron beam at the FACET facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and sending them through plasmas and dielectric tubes to generate transformer ratios greater than 2 (the limit for symmetric bunches). The scheme proposed utilizes the final FACET chicane compressor and transverse collimation to shape the longitudinal phase space of the beam.
Control and manipulation of properties - such as vacuum modal confinement, spatial harmonic content, phase velocity, and group velocity - are reasons why an all-dielectric beam-driven accelerator would be expected to benefit by borrowing from the field of optical bandgap photonics. We outline the general conditions for coherent Cerenkov radiation in a photonic crystal, illustrated by three examples: two Bragg mirrors separated by a vacuum gap, a woodpile with a linear waveguide channel, and a stack of photonic slabs having a planar waveguide channel.
In this work we present details of planned experiments to investigate certain aspects of the quasi non linear regime (QNL) of plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA). In the QNL regime it is, in principal, possible to combine the benefits of both nonlinear and linear PWFA. That is, beams of high quality can be maintained through acceleration due to the complete ejection of plasma electrons from beam occupied region, while large energy gains can be achieved through use of transformer ratio increasing schemes, such as ramped bunch trains. With the addition of an short focal length PMQ triplet capable of focusing beams to the few micron scale and the ability to generate tunable bunch trains, the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at Brookhaven National Lab offers the unique capabilities to probe these characteristics of the QNL regime.