C. E. Clayton

Energy doubling of 42 GeV electrons in a metre-scale plasma wakefield accelerator

The energy frontier of particle physics is several trillion electron volts, but colliders capable of reaching this regime (such as the Large Hadron Collider and the International Linear Collider) are costly and time-consuming to build; it is therefore important to explore new methods of accelerating particles to high energies. Plasma-based accelerators are particularly attractive because they are capable of producing accelerating fields that are orders of magnitude larger than those used in conventional colliders. In these accelerators, a drive beam (either laser or particle) produces a plasma wave (wakefield) that accelerates charged particles. The ultimate utility of plasma accelerators will depend on sustaining ultrahigh accelerating fields over a substantial length to achieve a significant energy gain. Here we show that an energy gain of more than 42 GeV is achieved in a plasma wakefield accelerator of 85 cm length, driven by a 42 GeV electron beam at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). The results are in excellent agreement with the predictions of three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Most of the beam electrons lose energy to the plasma wave, but some electrons in the back of the same beam pulse are accelerated with a field of ∼52 GV m-1. This effectively doubles their energy, producing the energy gain of the 3-km-long SLAC accelerator in less than a metre for a small fraction of the electrons in the injected bunch. This is an important step towards demonstrating the viability of plasma accelerators for high-energy physics applications.

Simulation of a 50GeV PWFA Stage

The plasma afterburner has been proposed as a possible advanced acceleration scheme for a future linear collider. In this concept, a high energy electron(or positron) drive beam from an existing linac such as the SLC will propagate in a plasma section of density about one order of magnitude lower than the peak beam density. The particle beam generates a strong plasma wave wakefield which has a phase velocity equal to the velocity of the beam and this wakefield can be used to accelerate part of the drive beam or a trailing beam. Several issues such as the efficient transfer of energy and the stable propagation of the particle beam in the plasma are critical to the afterburner concept. We investigate the nonlinear beam‐plasma interactions in such scenario using a new 3D particle‐in‐cell code called QuickPIC. Preliminary simulation results for electron acceleration, beam‐loading and hosing instability will be presented.

Demonstration of the frequency upshifting of microwave radiation by rapid plasma creation

A technique for frequency-upshifting electromagnetic radiation is demonstrated. By ionizing azulene vapor contained in a resonant cavity using a laser pulse, the frequency of the incident RF wave at 33.3 GHz is upshifted by 5% with greater than 10% efficiency. Maximum frequency upshift of 2.3 times the source frequency is observed. There are two mechanisms thought to be operative in producing the observed frequency upshift: the time-dependent dielectric constant due to increasing plasma density, and rapid Q-switching of the cavity. This technique has the potential of being able to generate tunable and chirped radiation over a very broad ( Delta f/f>or approximately=1) frequency range. >

Acceleration and scattering of injected electrons in plasma beat wave accelerator experiments

The results from experiments in which a two‐frequency CO2 laser is used to beat‐excite large‐amplitude, relativistic electron plasma waves in a tunnel‐ionized plasma are reported. The plasma wave is diagnosed by injecting a beam of 2 MeV electrons and observing the energy gain and loss of these electrons, as well as the scattering and deflection of the transmitted electrons near 2 MeV. Accelerated electrons up to 30 MeV have been observed. The lifetime of the accelerating structure as seen by small‐angle Thomson scattering is about 100 ps, whereas the injected electrons are seen to be scattered or deflected by the plasma for several ns, with diffuse scattering occurring 0.5–1 ns after forming the plasma wave and whole beam deflection occurring at later times. A simple model, which includes laser focusing, ionization, transit time, and relativistic saturation effects, suggests that the wave coherence may be short lived while the wave fields themselves persist for a longer time. This may be the reason for t...

High energy density plasma science with an ultrarelativistic electron beam

An intense, high-energy electron or positron beam can have focused intensities rivaling those of today’s most powerful laser beams. For example, the 5 ps (full-width, half-maximum), 50 GeV beam at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) at 1 kA and focused to a 3 micron rms spot size gives intensities of >1020 W/cm−2 at a repetition rate of >10 Hz. Unlike a ps or fs laser pulse which interacts with the surface of a solid target, the particle beam can readily tunnel through tens of cm of steel. However, the same particle beam can be manipulated quite effectively by a plasma that is a million times less dense than air! This is because of the incredibly strong collective fields induced in the plasma by the Coulomb force of the beam. The collective fields in turn react back onto the beam leading to many clearly observable phenomena. The beam paraticles can be: (1) Deflected leading to focusing, defocusing, or even steering of the beam; (2) undulated causing the emission of spontaneous betatron x-ray rad...

Photo-ionized lithium source for plasma accelerator applications

A photo-ionized lithium source is developed for plasma acceleration applications. A homogeneous column of lithium neutral vapor with a density of 2/spl times/10/sup 15-3/ is confined by helium gas in a heat-pipe oven. A UV laser pulse ionizes the vapor. In this device, the length of the neutral vapor and plasma column is 25 cm. The plasma density was measured by laser interferometry in the visible on the lithium neutrals and by CO/sub 2/ laser interferometry on the plasma electrons. The maximum measured plasma density was 2.9/spl times/10/sup 14/ cm/sup -3/, limited by the available UV fluence (/spl ap/83 mJ/cm/sup 2/), corresponding to a 15% ionization fraction. After ionization, the plasma density decreases by a factor of two in about 12 /spl mu/s. These results show that such a plasma source is scaleable to lengths of the order of 1 m and should satisfy all the requirements for demonstrating the acceleration of electrons by 1 GeV in a 1-GeV/m amplitude plasma wake.

Second harmonic generation and its interaction with relativistic plasma waves driven by forward Raman instability in underdense plasmas

High conversion efficiency (0.1%) into second harmonic light generated in the interaction of a short-pulse intense laser with underdense plasma has been observed. In this experiment the plasma is created by optical field ionization of hydrogen or helium gas. Second harmonic spectra observed in the forward direction show Stokes and anti-Stokes satellites. This is due to the interaction of the second harmonic light with large-amplitude relativistic plasmawaves. Second harmonic images taken at 30° from the propagation axis show that the radiation is generated over a length of a few times the Rayleigh length and that the origin of the second harmonic light is due to the radial electron density gradients created by the ionization process and the radial ponderomotive force.

Multi-gigaelectronvolt acceleration of positrons in a self-loaded plasma wakefield

Electrical breakdown sets a limit on the kinetic energy that particles in a conventional radio-frequency accelerator can reach. New accelerator concepts must be developed to achieve higher energies and to make future particle colliders more compact and affordable. The plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) embodies one such concept, in which the electric field of a plasma wake excited by a bunch of charged particles (such as electrons) is used to accelerate a trailing bunch of particles. To apply plasma acceleration to electron–positron colliders, it is imperative that both the electrons and their antimatter counterpart, the positrons, are efficiently accelerated at high fields using plasmas. Although substantial progress has recently been reported on high-field, high-efficiency acceleration of electrons in a PWFA powered by an electron bunch, such an electron-driven wake is unsuitable for the acceleration and focusing of a positron bunch. Here we demonstrate a new regime of PWFAs where particles in the front of a single positron bunch transfer their energy to a substantial number of those in the rear of the same bunch by exciting a wakefield in the plasma. In the process, the accelerating field is altered—‘self-loaded’—so that about a billion positrons gain five gigaelectronvolts of energy with a narrow energy spread over a distance of just 1.3 metres. They extract about 30 per cent of the wake’s energy and form a spectrally distinct bunch with a root-mean-square energy spread as low as 1.8 per cent. This ability to transfer energy efficiently from the front to the rear within a single positron bunch makes the PWFA scheme very attractive as an energy booster to an electron–positron collider.

Observation of Raman forward scattering and electron acceleration in the relativistic regime

Raman forward scattering (RFS) is observed in the interaction of a high intensity (>10/sup 18/ W/cm/sup 2/) short pulse (<1 ps) laser with an underdense plasma (n/sub e//spl sim/10/sup 19/ cm/sup -3/). Electrons are trapped and accelerated up to 44 MeV by the high-amplitude plasma wave produced by RFS. The laser spectrum is strongly modulated by the interaction, showing sidebands at the plasma frequency. Furthermore, as the quiver velocity of the electrons in the high electric field of the laser beam becomes relativistic, various effects are observed which can be attributed to the variation of electron mass with laser intensity.

E-157: A 1.4-m-long plasma wake field acceleration experiment using a 30 GeV electron beam from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Linac

In the E-157 experiment now being conducted at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, a 30 GeV electron beam of 2×1010 electrons in a 0.65-mm-long bunch is propagated through a 1.4-m-long lithium plasma of density up to 2×1014 e−/cm3. The initial beam density is greater than the plasma density, and the head of the bunch expels the plasma electrons leaving behind a uniform ion channel with transverse focusing fields of up to several thousand tesla per meter. The initial transverse beam size with σ=50–100 μm is larger than the matched size of 5 μm resulting in up to three beam envelope oscillations within the plasma. Time integrated optical transition radiation is used to study the transverse beam profile immediately before and after the plasma and to characterize the transverse beam dynamics as a function of plasma density. The head of the bunch deposits energy into plasma wakes, resulting in longitudinal accelerating fields which are witnessed by the tail of the same bunch. A time-resolved Cherenkov imag...