E-157: a Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment

by Patrick Muggli (UCLA)

Wednesday 26 Jul 2000, 11:00 → 11:15 Europe/Zurich

PS Auditorium (CERN)

The E-157 Plasma Wakefield Acceleration (PWFA) experiment aims at studying the acceleration of electrons submitted to fields exceeding 100 MV/m in underdense lithium plasmas. The electrons of the head of the bunch completely expel the plasma electrons, and create a pure ion channel for the core of the bunch to propagate through. The ion channel radial electric field exerts a strong focusing force on the bunch core leading to multiple betatron oscillations of the electron bunch. Behind the bunch core, the plasma electrons rush back into the ion channel and generate a large amplitude longitudinal electric field: the wake field. The plasma density is tuned so that the bunch trailing electrons experience the maximum wake field during their acceleration. The experimental set-up, as well as results regarding betatron oscillations, bunches tail flipping, beams refraction, x-ray emission, and energy gain will be presented.

Organiser(s): Bruno Autin/PS