Göttingen 2025 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

AKBP: Arbeitskreis Beschleunigerphysik

AKBP 7: Novel Accelerator Concepts II and FELs

AKBP 7.1: Talk

Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 16:15–16:30, ZHG004

Considerations for high repetition rate plasma accelerator sources — •Juan Pablo Diaz, Stephan Wesch, and Jonathan Wood for the FLASHForward collaboration — Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY

Electron-bunch-driven plasma-wakefield accelerators promise to revolutionize particle acceleration by providing compact and cost-effective energy boosters for electron linacs which could, for example, significantly enhance the photon energies produced by free-electron lasers. The FLASHForward facility at DESY has made substantial progress, demonstrating that accelerated electron bunches can maintain their charge, energy spread, and emittance during plasma acceleration. A major challenge remains in achieving high-repetition-rate operation, as is common in conventional radiofrequency accelerators.

To match the bunch patterns of superconducting RF linacs, identical plasma acceleration events must take place at MHz frequencies. This presents two challenges: how to maintain the same plasma density over these timescales, and how to deal with the high heat load in the plasma and its containment device. In this contribution we will first outline plans and recent results to measure the density evolution of discharge-initiated plasmas with high temporal and spatial resolution. Secondly, we will report on the long-term heating of the plasma cell from repeated plasma creation events with a view towards implementing mitigation strategies

Keywords: Beam-Driven Plasma Accelerators; FLASHForward; DESY; Plasma Wakefield Acceleration