Laser Wakefield Acceleration of Particle in a Plasma

Plasma Wakefield Accelerators promise huge acceleration gradients that are three orders of magnitude greater than today's conventional radio frequency (RF) accelerators. These novel accelerators show also the potential of diminishing the size of the future accelerators nearly by the same factor. This review gives brief explanations and the working principles of the Plasma Wakefield Accelerators and shows the recent developments of the field. The current challenges are given a...

Fundamental questions on the nature of matter and energy have found answers thanks to the use of particle accelerators. Societal applications, such as cancer treatment or cancer imaging, illustrate the impact of accelerators in our current life. Today, accelerators use metallic cavities that sustain electricfields with values limited to about 100 MV/m. Because of their ability to support extreme accelerating gradients, the plasma medium has recently been proposed for future c...

In this article, we concentrate on the basic physics of relativistic plasma wave accelerators. The generation of relativistic plasma waves by intense lasers or electron beams in low-density plasmas is important in the quest for producing ultra-high acceleration gradients for accelerators. A number of methods are being pursued vigorously to achieve ultra-high acceleration gradients using various plasma wave drivers; these include wakefield accelerators driven by photon, electr...

We briefly give some of the characteristics of the beam-driven, plasma-based particle accelerator known as the plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA). We also mention some of the major results that have been obtained since the birth of the concept. We focus on high-energy particle beams where possible.

The goal of this paper is to examine experimental progress in laser wakefield acceleration over the past decade (2004-2014), and to use trends in the data to understand some of the important physical processes. By examining a set of over 50 experiments, various trends concerning the relationship between plasma density, accelerator length, laser power and the final electron beam en- ergy are revealed. The data suggest that current experiments are limited by dephasing and that ...

These proceedings are of interest to staff and students in accelerator laboratories, university departments and companies working in or having an interest in the field of new acceleration techniques. Following introductory lectures on plasma and laser physics, the course covers the different components of a plasma wake accelerator and plasma beam systems. Topical seminars and an overview about alternative new techniques like dielectric accelerators are included. Lectures on t...

The concept of a hybrid laser wakefield/direct laser plasma accelerator is proposed. Relativistic electrons undergoing resonant betatron oscillations inside the plasma bubble created by a laser pulse are accelerated by gaining energy directly from the laser pulse and from its plasma wake. The resulting bifurcated phase space of self-injected plasma electrons contains a population that experiences wakefield acceleration beyond the standard one-dimensional limit because of the ...

A linear electron-positron collider operating at TeV scale energies will provide high precision measurements and allow, for example, precision studies of the Higgs boson as well as searches for physics beyond the standard model. A future linear collider should produce collisions at high energy, with high luminosity and with a good wall plug to beam power transfer efficiency. The luminosity per power consumed is a key metric that can be used to compare linear collider concepts...

In the past decades, beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) experiments have seen remarkable progress by using high-energy particle beams such as electron, positron and proton beams to drive wakes in neutral gas or pre-ionized plasma. This review highlights a few recent experiments in the world to compare experiment parameters and results.

The accelerating gradients in conventional linear accelerators are currently limited to 100 MV per meter. Plasma-based accelerators have the ability to sustain accelerating gradients which are several orders of magnitude greater than that obtained in conventionalaccelerators. Due to the rapid development of laser technology the laser-plasma-based accelerators are of great interest now. Over the past decade, successful experiments on laser wakefield acceleration of electrons i...