High Average Gradient in a Laser-Gated Multistage Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

Plasma wakefield accelerators driven by particle beams are capable of providing accelerating gradient several orders of magnitude higher than currently used radio-frequency technology, which could reduce the length of particle accelerators, with drastic influence on the development of future colliders at TeV energies and the minimization of x-ray free-electron lasers. Since interplasma components and distances are among the biggest contributors to the total accelerator length, the design of staged plasma accelerators is one of the most important outstanding questions in order to render this technology instrumental. Here, we present a novel concept to optimize interplasma distances in a staged beam-driven plasma accelerator by drive-beam coupling in the temporal domain and gating the accelerator via a femtosecond ionization laser.

Automated summary

Particle beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerators offer a significantly higher accelerating gradient compared to radio-frequency technology, making them crucial for future TeV energy colliders and x-ray free-electron lasers. The design of staged plasma accelerators, which aims to minimize interplasma distances, is one of the most important challenges in this field. In this study, a novel concept utilizing drive-beam coupling and femtosecond ionization laser gating is proposed to optimize the interplasma distances.