Richard D'Arcy

Abstract:

FLASHForward is a beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration facility, currently under construction at DESY (Hamburg, Germany), aiming at the stable generation of electron beams of several GeV with small energy spread and emittance. High-quality 1 GeV-class electron beams from the free-electron laser FLASH will act as the wake driver. The setup will allow studies of external injection as well as density-downramp injection. With a triangular-shaped driver beam electron energies of up to 5 GeV from a few centimeters of plasma can be anticipated. Particle-In-Cell simulations are used to assess the feasibility of each technique and to predict properties of the accelerated electron bunches. In this contribution the current status of FLASHForward, along with recent experimental developments and upcoming scientific plans, will be reviewed.

Abstract:

Based on the success of the X-band Transverse Deflecting Structure (TDS) diagnostic at LCLS [1], a collaboration between DESY, PSI and CERN has formed with the aim of developing and building an advanced modular X-band TDS system. The designed TDS has the new feature of providing variable polarization of the deflecting field [2]. The possibility of changing the orientation of the streaking field of the TDS to an arbitrary azimuthal angle allows for 3D characterization of the phase space using tomographic methods [3]. Moreover the complete 6D characterization of the beam phase space is possible by combining this technique with quadrupole scans and a dipole spectrometer. As this new cavity design requires very high manufacturing precision to guarantee highest azimuthal symmetry of the structure to avoid the deterioration of the polarization of the streaking field, the high precision tuning-free assembly procedures developed at PSI for the SwissFEL C-band accelerating structures will be used for the manufacturing process [4]. The high-power rf system is based on the hardware developed for the CERN X-band test stands. We summarize in this work the status of the project and its main technical parameters.

Abstract:

FLASHForward (FFV∗-) is the Future-ORiented Wakefield Accelerator Research and Development project at the DESY free-electron laser (FEL) facility FLASH. It aims to produce high-quality, GeV-energy electron beams over a plasma cell of a few centimeters. The plasma is created by means of a 25 TW Ti: Sapphire laser system. The plasma wakefield will be driven by high-current-density electron beams extracted from the FLASH accelerator. The project focuses on the advancement of plasma-based particle acceleration technology through the exploration of both external and internal witness-beam injection schemes. Multiple conventional and cutting-edge diagnostic tools, suitable for diagnosis of short electron beams, are under development. The design of the post-plasma beamline sections will be finalized based on the result of these aforementioned diagnostics. In this paper, the status of the project, as well as the progress towards achieving its overarching goal of demonstrating FEL gain via plasma wakefield acceleration, is discussed.

Abstract:

The SwissFEL project, under commissioning at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), will produce FEL radiation for soft and hard X-rays with pulse durations ranging from a few to several tens of femtoseconds. A collaboration between DESY, PSI and CERN has been established with the aim of developing and building an advanced X-Band transverse deflection structure (TDS) with the new feature of providing variable polarization of the deflecting force. As this innovative CERN design requires very high manufacturing precision to guarantee highest azimuthal symmetry of the structure to avoid the deterioration of the polarization of the streaking field, the high-precision tuning-free assembly procedures developed at PSI for the SwissFEL C-band accelerating structures will be used for the manufacturing. Such a TDS will be installed downstream of the undulators of the soft X-ray beamline of SwissFEL and thanks to the variable polarization of the TDS it will be possible to perform a complete characterization of the 6D phase space. We summarize in this work the status of the project and its main technical parameters.