The highly successful RF accelerator technology is based on a structured vacuum, fit to the wavelength of the driving RF or microwave fields. The same principle can be used with light. Because the wavelength of light lies around 1 micron, acceleration structures need to be fabricated with a feature size on the sub-micron scale – a standard size for cleanroom-based nanofabrication. We will...
Acceleration of particles in plasma looks promising due to the very high electric fields which can be achieved, bringing prospects for much more compact accelerator facilities. Schemes based on laser- or electron-driven wakes have been under investigation for several decades. Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration is a more recent concept, and a demonstration project, AWAKE, is underway...
The 2020 European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP) emphasized the critical importance of completing the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade of both the accelerator and experiments in a timely manner, identifying it as a top priority for the field. The strategy also established two key recommendations for future accelerator initiatives: (i) the realization of an electron–positron Higgs...
Laser wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) are novel drivers of compact ultrafast radiation sources. Two primary emission mechanisms are betatron radiation in the X-ray regime, generated as relativistic electrons oscillate transversely in the plasma cavity, and inverse Compton scattering (ICS), produced when a relativistic electron beam collides with a laser pulse, giving energy to photons up to the...
The Diamond-II Project is a coordinated programme of development that combines a major machine upgrade with new beamlines and provides complementary improvements to optics, detectors, computing and supporting infrastructure. This talk will present an overview of the project, concentrating on the key storage ring design features and novel aspects of the operation. The seminar concludes with a...
The 2020s have seen a profound cultural shift in nuclear fusion science and engineering. For decades a global community of publicly-funded scientists worked in one of two types of laboratory. Either these would be defence scientists working in a national laboratory focussed on the needs of ensuring nuclear weapons reliability or more visibly they would be government researchers seeking to...
