Laser-plasma accelerator group

Abstract:

The Advanced Wakefield Experiment (AWAKE) at CERN uses bunches from the CERN SPS to develop proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. AWAKE Run 2c (starting in 2029) plans for external on-axis injection of a 150MeV electron witness bunch with the goal to demonstrate emittance control of multi-GeV accelerated electron beams. Prior to injection, the electron witness bunch may have to traverse rubidium vapour. Since the beam must have the correct beam size and emittance at injection, it is important to quantify the scattering effect. For this, first-principle estimates and Geant4 simulations are compared with measurements of a ∼20MeV electron beam scattering in 5.5m of rubidium vapour, showing good agreement. Building on this agreement, Geant4 simulations using the estimated AWAKE Run 2c parameters are performed. These predict that scattering will not increase the electron beam size or emittance.

Abstract:

We show in experiments that a long, underdense, relativistic proton bunch propagating in plasma undergoes the oblique instability, which we observe as filamentation. We determine a threshold value for the ratio between the bunch transverse size and plasma skin depth for the instability to occur. At the threshold, the outcome of the experiment alternates between filamentation and self-modulation instability (evidenced by longitudinal modulation into microbunches). Time-resolved images of the bunch density distribution reveal that filamentation grows to an observable level late along the bunch, confirming the spatiotemporal nature of the instability. We provide a rough estimate of the amplitude of the magnetic field generated in the plasma by the instability and show that the associated magnetic energy increases with plasma density.