Plasma-wakefield accelerator simultaneously boosts electron beam energy and brightness
High-energy particle colliders and X-ray free-electron lasers demand electron beams with qualities currently achieved only in kilometer-scale radio-frequency accelerators. Plasma accelerators promise a compact alternative but have faced challenges in delivering the needed beam quality at relevant energies. Here, we demonstrate that a plasma-wakefield accelerator operating in the nonlinear regime acts as a transformer to simultaneously boost the energy and brightness of an electron bunch injected from the plasma. Using a 10-GeV drive bunch and a three-stage meter-scale plasma source, we generated electron bunches exceeding 20 GeV with sub-percent energy spread, 2 mm·mrad normalized emittance, and multi-kA peak current. A significant number of drive-bunch electrons lost over 90% of their energy, a prerequisite for high energy-conversion efficiency. This demonstration of an energy transformer ratio exceeding two and a brightness enhancement over an order of magnitude opens a path towards cost-effective accelerators for future colliders and light sources.
Authors
- W. B. Mori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6394-5082)
- S. Corde (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5015-0387)
- C. Joshi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1696-9751)
- Elias Hansen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0674-3120)
- Spencer Gessner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9713-1116)
- O. G. Finnerud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5362-9473)
- M. Litos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2434-8207)
- Claire Hansel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7247-9626)
- Claudio Emma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4719-1831)
- C. A. Lindstrøm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0769-0425)
- Valentina Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3589-365X)
- Nathan Majernik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9977-0248)
- Robert Ariniello (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7065-4358)
- Thamine Dalichaouch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4735-0150)
- G. Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4233-8232)
- Ivan Rajković (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4397-4801)
- Mark Hogan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3674-5632)
- K. A. Marsh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0107-7803)
- A. Knetsch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7289-9228)
- D. Storey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6058-9206)
- Chaojie Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8035-3014)
- Brendan O’Shea (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2788-3248)
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- University of Oslo (NO)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-11-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65742-8
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.73
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Office of Science
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory