9 GeV Energy Gain in a Beam-Driven Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

TL;DR

This paper reports achieving a 9 GeV energy gain in a plasma wakefield accelerator over 1.3 meters, demonstrating high-gradient acceleration with consistent wake structure and charge-dependent effects.

Contribution

First demonstration of a 9 GeV energy gain in a beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator over a meter-long plasma, confirming stable wake propagation and charge effects.

Findings

Maximum energy gain of 9 GeV per particle

Average energy gain of 5.3 GeV over 215 shots

Acceleration gradient of 4.0 GeV/m

Abstract

An electron beam has gained a maximum energy of 9 GeV per particle in a 1.3 m-long electron beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator. The amount of charge accelerated in the spectral peak was 28.3 pC, and the root-mean-square energy spread was 5.0%. The mean accelerated charge and energy gain per particle of the 215 shot data set was 115 pC and 5.3 GeV, respectively, corresponding to an acceleration gradient of 4.0 GeV/m at the spectral peak. The mean energy spread of the data set was 5.1%. These results are consistent with the extrapolation of the previously reported energy gain results using a shorter, 36 cm-long plasma source to within 10%, evincing a non-evolving wake structure that can propagate distances of over a meter in length. Wake-loading effects were evident in the data through strong dependencies observed between various spectral properties and the amount of accelerated charge.