Chirp mitigation of plasma-accelerated beams using a modulated plasma density

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel plasma density modulation technique to mitigate beam chirp in plasma accelerators, aiming to improve beam quality for future high-energy physics and light source applications.

Contribution

Introduction of an alternating focusing scheme using modulated plasma density to reduce energy spread in plasma-accelerated beams.

Findings

The scheme effectively reduces beam energy chirp.

Maintains small energy spread during acceleration.

Enhances beam quality for practical applications.

Abstract

Plasma-based accelerators offer the possibility to drive future compact light sources and high-energy physics applications. Achieving good beam quality, especially a small beam energy spread, is still one of the major challenges. For stable transport, the beam is located in the focusing region of the wakefield which covers only the slope of the accelerating field. This, however, imprints a longitudinal energy correlation (chirp) along the bunch. Here, we propose an alternating focusing scheme in the plasma to mitigate the development of this chirp and thus maintain a small energy spread.