Simulations and experimental commissioning results of the AWAKE Run 2 photoinjector

AWAKE (Advanced Wakefield Experiment) is the world’s first proton-driven plasma wake field acceleration experiment and has demonstrated the acceleration of electrons to several GeV’s in its first Run. The goal of Run2 is acceleration of a witness bunch whilst preserving beam quality and experiment scalability. AWAKE drives high gradient plasma wake fields using a proton beam, then a secondary electron beam is accelerated which is externally injected from a dedicated injector which consists of an S-band Rf-gun and an X-band bunching and acceleration system. This S band RF-Photoinjector for the AWAKE Run 2 experiment at CERN is currently being commissioned. The obtained experimental results are presented and compared to simulations in this paper. Overall, the commissioning demonstrates successful matching of beam parameters with the design values, supported by ASTRA simulations. This lays the groundwork for low emittance electron beam injection into the AWAKE plasma and opens possibilities for future high-gradient acceleration experiments.