Energy depletion and re-acceleration of driver electrons in a plasma-wakefield accelerator
For plasma-wakefield accelerators to fulfill their potential for cost effectiveness, it is essential that their energy-transfer efficiency be maximized. A key aspect of this efficiency is the near-complete transfer of energy, or depletion, from the driver electrons to the plasma wake. Achieving full depletion is limited by the process of re-acceleration, which occurs when the driver electrons decelerate to nonrelativistic energies, slipping backward into the accelerating phase of the wakefield and being subsequently re-accelerated. Such re-acceleration is unambiguously observed here for the first time. At this re-acceleration limit, we measure a beam driver depositing <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><a:mo>(</a:mo><a:mn>57</a:mn><a:mo> </a:mo><a:mo>±</a:mo><a:mo> </a:mo><a:mn>3</a:mn><a:mo>)</a:mo><a:mo>%</a:mo></a:math> of its energy into a 195-mm-long plasma. This suggests that the energy-transfer efficiency of plasma accelerators could approach that of conventional accelerators. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Authors
- S. Schröder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0649-9995)
- S. Wesch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3789-8884)
- F. Peña Asmus
- Jonas Björklund Svensson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7161-9714)
- J. M. Garland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3581-6566)
- Jens Osterhoff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7684-0140)
- C. A. Lindstrøm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0769-0425)
- Jonathan Wood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4413-7044)
- Maxence Thévenet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7216-2277)
- B. Foster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5699-3046)
- Severin Diederichs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9079-0461)
- Richard D’Arcy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7224-8334)
- J. Beinortaitė (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2272-1936)
- L. Boulton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1349-9771)
- Gregor Loisch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6178-2339)
- P. González Caminal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0042-5864)
Institutions
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (GB)
- University of Oslo (NO)
- Cockcroft Institute (GB)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science (GB)
- University College London (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Research
- Published
- 2024-11-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevresearch.6.043090
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.62
Funders
- Norges Forskningsråd
- European Research Council
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron