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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Analysis of the Blowout Plasma Wakefields Produced by Drive Beams with Elliptical Symmetry

In the underdense, or blowout regime, of plasma wakefield acceleration, the particle beam is denser than the plasma. In this scenario, the plasma electrons are nearly completely rarefied from the beam channel, leaving only a nominally uniform ion-filled “bubble.” Extensive investigations of this interaction assuming axisymmetry have been undertaken. However, the blowout produced by a transversely asymmetric (flat) driver, which would be present in linear collider “afterburner” schemes, possesses quite different characteristics. Such beams create an asymmetric plasma bubble which leads to unequal focusing in the two transverse dimensions, accompanied by a nonuniform accelerating gradient. The asymmetric blowout cross section is found through simulation to be elliptical, and treating it as such permits a simple extension of the symmetric theory. In particular, focusing fields linear in both transverse directions inside the bubble are found. The form of the wake potential and the associated beam-matching conditions in this elliptical cavity are discussed. Here, we also examine blowout boundary estimation in the long driver limit and applications of the salient asymmetric features of the wakefield.

Manwani, P. [University of California, Los Angeles↗
DOE OSTI2024

Wakefield generation in hydrogen and lithium plasmas at FACET-II: Diagnostics and first beam-plasma interaction results

Plasma wakefield acceleration provides ultrahigh acceleration gradients of tens of GeV/m, providing a novel path toward efficient, compact, TeV-scale linear colliders, and high brightness free electron lasers. Critical to the success of these applications is demonstrating simultaneously high gradient acceleration, high energy transfer efficiency, and preservation of emittance, charge, and energy spread. Experiments at the FACET-II National User Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory aim to achieve all of these milestones in a single-stage plasma wakefield accelerator, providing a 10 GeV energy gain in a < 1 m plasma with high energy transfer efficiency. Such a demonstration depends critically on diagnostics able to measure emittance with mm mrad accuracy, energy spectra to determine both percent level energy spread, and broadband energy gain and loss, incoming longitudinal phase space, and matching dynamics. This paper discusses the experimental setup at FACET-II, including the incoming beam parameters from the FACET-II linac, plasma sources, and diagnostics developed to meet this challenge. Initial progress on the generation of beam ionized wakes in meter-scale hydrogen gas is discussed as well as commissioning of the plasma sources and diagnostics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Numerical studies of collinear laser-assisted injection from a foil for plasma wakefield accelerators

We present a laser-assisted electron injection scheme for beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. The laser is collinear with the driver and triggers the injection of hot electrons into the plasma wake by interaction with a thin solid target. We present a baseline case using the AWAKE Run 2 parameters and then perform variations on key parameters to explore the scheme. It is found that the trapped witness electron charge may be tuned by altering laser parameters, with a strong dependence on the phase of the wake upon injection. Normalized emittance settles at the order of micrometres and varies with witness charge. The scheme is robust to misalignment, with a 1/10th plasma skin-depth offset ( 20 μ m for the AWAKE case) having a negligible effect on the final beam. The final beam quality is better than similar existing schemes, and several avenues for further optimization are indicated. The constraints on the AWAKE experiment are very specific, but the general principles of this mechanism can be applied to future beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator experiments. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2025

Particle-in-cell simulation of laser wakefield accelerators with oblique lasers in quasicylindrical geometry

In the studies of optical injections in laser or beam-driven wakefield accelerators, there is a frequent demand for using obliquely propagating assistant lasers in particle-in-cell simulations. In conventional methods, this is only possible in either two- or three-dimensional Cartesian geometries, which have the drawbacks of either lack of fidelity for the actual situation or requiring a huge amount of computational resources. In this work, we develop a new method that uses an expression-defined oblique laser field to simulate such situations in quasicylindrical geometry particle-in-cell simulations, having the advantages of both maintaining good fidelity and saving computational resources. As an example, we use this method in the scissor-cross ionization injection scheme for the optimization of the injected beam quality. This method is widely applicable to particle injections with assistant lasers in wakefield accelerators, as long as the assistant lasers only influence the injected particles during the injection process. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Ma, Minghao (ORCID:0009000602317775)↗
DOE OSTI2021

Investigations of Long-Range Wakefield Effects in a TESLA-type Cryomodule at FAST

The preservation of low emittance of electron beams during transport in the accelerating structures of large facilities is an ongoing challenge. In the cases of the TESLA-type superconducting rf cavities currently used in the European X-ray Free-electron Laser (XFEL) and the under-construction Linac Coherent Light Source upgrade (LCLS-II), off-axis beam transport may result in emittance dilution due to transverse long-range wakefields (LRWs) and short-range wakefields (SRW)***. To investigate such effects, experiments were performed at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility with its unique configuration of two TESLA-type cavities after the photocathode rf gun followed by an 8-cavity cryomodule CM). We generated beam trajectory changes with the H/V125 corrector set located 4 m upstream of the cryomodule. At 125 pC/bunch, 50 bunches, 25-MeV input, and 100-MeV exit energy, we observed for the first time submacropulse position slews of up to 500 microns at locations ~3 m after the CM and a centroid oscillation at a difference frequency of 240 kHz further downstream. Both are emittance-dilution effects which we mitigated with selective upstream beam steering.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Start-to-End Simulation of the Drive-Beam Longitudinal Dynamics for Beam-Driven Wakefield Acceleration

Collinear beam-driven wakefield acceleration (WFA) relies on shaped driver beam to provide higher accelerating gradient at a smaller cost and physical footprint. This acceleration scheme is currently envisioned to accelerate electron beams capable of driving free-electron laser *. Start-to-end simulation of drive-bunch beam dynamics is crucial for the evaluation of the design of accelerators built upon WFA. We report the start-to-end longitudinal beam dynamics simulations of an accelerator beamline capable of producing high charge drive beam. The generated wakefield when it passes through a corrugated waveguide results in a transformer ratio of 5. This paper especially discusses the challenges and criteria associated with the generation of temporally-shaped driver beam, including the beam formation in the photoinjector, and the influence of energy chirp control on beam transport stability.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Impedance and wakefield studies of the EIC RCS 591 MHz five-cell cavity

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is a next-generation accelerator complex designed to enable high-luminosity collisions between highly polarized electrons and light ions (e.g., He-3). A central component of its Electron Injection System (EIS) is the Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS), which accelerates a single 28 nC electron bunch from 750 MeV to 5, 10, or 18 GeV using an array of 591 MHz five-cell superconducting RF (SRF) cavities—eight at the current design stage. To ensure stable acceleration of high-charge bunches, we conducted detailed impedance and wakefield studies of the SRF cavity structure using both frequency- and time-domain methods. Wakefield solvers (ECHO3D, ECHO1D, CST), eigenmode analysis, and multi-particle tracking with ELEGANT were employed to evaluate longitudinal and transverse impedance effects and to determine instability thresholds. These studies provide critical input for the cavity design and operating parameters required to preserve beam quality and stability in the RCS.

Accelerator Physics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Considerations on wakefield effects in a VUV FELO driven by a superconducting tesla-type linac

The effects on beam dynamics from long-range and short-range wakefields from TESLA-type cavities are considered in regard to a proposed FEL oscillator (FE-LO) operating at 120 nm. This would be driven by the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) linac at 300 MeV with a 3-MHz micropulse repetition rate. Our wakefield studies showed measurable effects on submacropulse centroid stability and on submicropulse head-tail kicks that can lead to emittance degradation. In the case of the former, we use MINERVA/OPC to simulate the ~100-$\mu$m centroid slew effects on the saturated output power levels of the FELO.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Convergence study of wakefield simulations with GdfidL and ECHO3D

The interaction of charged particle beams with vacuum chamber components gives rise to electromagnetic wakefields, whose frequency-domain representation is known as beam coupling impedance. Geometric impedance arising from discontinuities and transitions in the vacuum chamber is the focus of this study. Minimizing this impedance is essential to mitigate adverse collective effects in modern storage rings operating with high-intensity particle beams. Accurate and reliable impedance simulations is a key factor of the vacuum chamber design. This paper presents the results of a convergence study of two widely used electromagnetic solvers, GdfidL and ECHO3D, applied to key vacuum-chamber components of the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) storage ring. Detailed comparisons are performed for several geometries, including flange absorbers, RF bellows, button-type beam position monitors, and an in-vacuum undulator (IVU). The results show notable differences in convergence and computational efficiency between the two codes. While GdfidL provides highly resolved results and serves as a common benchmark tool, ECHO3D yields consistent results with coarser meshes, significantly reducing simulation time and memory demands. Simulations with a full-geometry IVU model demonstrate that simplified taper-transition models can miss important impedance contributions. In conclusion, these findings provide practical guidelines for efficient and accurate impedance modeling to optimize design of vacuum chamber components for accelerators.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Generation of ultrafast electron bunch trains via trapping into multiple periods of plasma wakefields

We demonstrate a novel approach to the generation of femtosecond electron bunch trains via laser-driven wakefield acceleration. We use two independent high-intensity laser pulses, a drive, and an injector, each creating their own plasma wakes. The interaction of the laser pulses and their wakes results in a periodic injection of free electrons in the drive plasma wake via several mechanisms, including ponderomotive drift, wake-wake interference, and pre-acceleration of electrons directly by strong laser fields. Electron trains were generated with up to four quasi-monoenergetic bunches, each separated in time by a plasma period. In conclusion, the time profile of the generated trains is deduced from an analysis of beam loading and confirmed using 2D particle-in-cell simulations

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Modeling laser-wakefield accelerators using the time-averaged ponderomotive approximation in a Lorentz boosted frame

Future, high-fidelity simulations of multi-GeV-class laser Wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) will need to model the propagation of high-intensity laser drivers over meter-scale plasmas with high spatial and temporal resolutions, thus requiring high amounts of computational resources. Various techniques have been devised over the years to reduce the computational cost of such simulations, including the time-averaged ponderomotive approximation, and the use of the Lorentz boosted frame technique. In this paper we discuss the combination of these two computational techniques, highlighting the resulting significant reduction in the computational cost of LWFA simulations and the limitations of this approach. The combination of the two techniques can potentially become essential for the modeling of a multi-TeV, LWFA-based collider.

Laser Wakefield Acceleration↗
DOE OSTI2026

Photon phase-space dynamics in a plasma wakefield accelerator

Frequency up-shifting of laser light in a beam-driven plasma wakefield has the potential to provide high-intensity sources of short wavelength radiation. Simulations have demonstrated that a laser pulse can undergo large frequency shifts, limited only by the drive beam energy, when the plasma density is tailored to match the accelerating phase of the wake to the group velocity of the pulse. Here, we study the dynamical evolution of photons in the 1D1P phase-space vicinity of the plasma wake-phase matching condition. Numerical calculations using a photon kinetic model are validated by direct comparison with 1D and quasi-3D particle-in-cell simulations. These calculations form the basis of a linear theory of the photon dynamics which reveals several important results, including scalings for the properties of the witness pulse and a self-similar solution for the photon phase-space dynamics. One prediction of the analytic theory is that the pulse can be compressed indefinitely, though the amount of compression would ultimately be limited by practical constraints. These results suggest that photon acceleration can provide a novel source of sub-femtosecond, short wavelength radiation.

XUV generation↗
DOE OSTI2026

Strong-field QED limitations on TeV-class plasma wakefield accelerators

We demonstrate that quantum and classical radiation effects can become non-negligible for TeV-class beams propagating through plasma channels typical of staged plasma accelerators. Although the quantum nonlinearity parameter χ e remains small under currently envisioned experimental conditions, the cumulative influence of radiation over long acceleration distances can lead to significant modifications to the beam’s energy spread, emittance, and polarization. Our analytic models, validated by particle-in-cell simulations, highlight that for standard Gaussian beams, the orbit-induced energy spread dominates over quantum stochastic effects but can be mitigated by tailoring the beam profile, for example, through ring-shaped transverse distributions. In regimes where the radiation reaction approaches the accelerating force, the emittance may be cooled, forming distinctive ring-shaped phase-space structures. Finally, we analyze the influence of the radiation effect on spin transport inside the wakefield. These findings underscore the importance of considering both classical and quantum radiation dynamics in the design and optimization of future high-intensity plasma accelerators.

accelerator↗
DOE OSTI2025

Imaging of dynamic processes in materials with a laser-wakefield accelerator

Betatron x rays generated from laser-wakefield accelerators are a promising source for imaging dynamic processes in materials. Here, we present proof-of-concept imaging of microstructural evolution in a hypermonotectic Al-Bi alloy, which consists of liquid Bi particles in a solid Al matrix. The images capture the elongation and fragmentation of Bi particles upon isothermal annealing. Because of the femtosecond time scale of the betatron source, the images are not subject to motion blur, whereas the accessibility of the source allows for studies of long-term processes such as annealing. The high-resolution data reveal that the evolution of Bi particles is mediated by an interplay of grain-boundary wetting and morphological instability, in stark contrast to an earlier proposal for (inverse) coarsening.

Alloys↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quadrupole wiggler for a collinear wakefield accelerator

A quadrupole wiggler consisting of a row of alternating-polarity permanent magnet-excited quadrupoles is used in a collinear wakefield accelerator under development at Argonne National Laboratory. Fine translational and angular adjustment mechanisms are implemented in all quadrupoles to obtain a better than 1−μ⁢m precision in the alignment of quadrupole wiggler assemblies. The quadrupole’s magnetic and mechanical designs are described. Two wiggler prototypes were fabricated, aligned, and characterized performing pulsed wire magnetic measurements. The sensitivity of the quadrupole wiggler alignment to the ambient temperature was measured.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Injection of electron beams into two laser wakefields and generation of electron rings

Throughout this work, mutual injection of electron beams into two laser plasma wakefields was observed experimentally when driving laser pulses interfered in plasma at a small crossing angle and were slightly relatively delayed, approximately by one pulse duration. Particle-in-cell simulations revealed that the mutual injection was sensitive to the spatial overlap of the laser pulses, which therefore could be used to control the mutual injection. The dual synchronized, femtosecond electron beams are potentially useful for pump-probe experiments in ultrafast science. In addition, out-of-axis ring-shaped electron beams were detected in both experiments and simulations.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

In Situ Generation of High-Energy Spin-Polarized Electrons in a Beam-Driven Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

We report that in situ generation of a high-energy, high-current, spin-polarized electron beam is an outstanding scientific challenge to the development of plasma-based accelerators for high-energy colliders. In this Letter, we show how such a spin-polarized relativistic beam can be produced by ionization injection of electrons of certain atoms with a circularly polarized laser field into a beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator, providing a much desired one-step solution to this challenge. Using time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) simulations, we show the propensity rule of spin-dependent ionization of xenon atoms can be reversed in the strong-field multiphoton regime compared with the non-adiabatic tunneling regime, leading to high total spin polarization. Furthermore, three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are incorporated with TDSE simulations, providing start-to-end simulations of spin-dependent strong-field ionization of xenon atoms and subsequent trapping, acceleration, and preservation of electron spin polarization in lithium plasma. We show the generation of a high-current (0.8 kA), ultralow-normalized-emittance (~ 37 nm ), and high-energy (2.7 GeV) electron beam within just 11 cm distance, with up to ~31% net spin polarization. Higher current, energy, and net spin-polarization beams are possible by optimizing this concept, thus solving a long-standing problem facing the development of plasma accelerators.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Single-Shot Diagnosis of Electron Energy Evolution via Streaked Betatron X Rays in a Curved Laser Wakefield Accelerator

We report on an experimental observation of the streaking of betatron x rays in a curved laser wakefield accelerator. The streaking of the betatron x rays was realized by launching a laser pulse into a plasma with a transverse density gradient. By controlling the plasma density and the density gradient, we realized the steering of the laser driver, electron beam, and betatron x rays simultaneously. Furthermore, we observed an energy-angle correlation of the streaked betatron x rays and utilized it in diagnosing the electron acceleration process in a single-shot mode. Our work could also find applications in advanced control of laser beam and particle propagation. More importantly, the angular streaked betatron x ray has an intrinsic spatiotemporal correlation, which makes it a promising tool for single-shot pump-probe applications.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗