Development of an achromatic spectrometer for a laser-wakefield-accelerator experiment

TL;DR

This paper discusses designing an achromatic spectrometer using a nonlinear plasma lens to improve energy resolution in laser-wakefield-accelerator experiments, aiding in beam diagnostics.

Contribution

It introduces the development of an achromatic spectrometer with a nonlinear plasma lens for better beam analysis in plasma accelerators.

Findings

Progress in designing the achromatic spectrometer

Potential for improved energy resolution in electron bunches

Enhancement of plasma interaction diagnostics

Abstract

The large gradients of plasma-wakefield accelerators promise to shorten accelerators and reduce their financial and environmental costs. For such accelerators, a key challenge is the transport of beams with high divergence and energy spread. Achromatic optics is a potential solution that would allow staging of plasma accelerators without beam-quality degradation. For this, a nonlinear plasma lens is being developed within the SPARTA project. As a first application of this lens, we aim to implement an achromatic spectrometer for electron bunches produced by a laser-wakefield accelerator. This will greatly improve the resolution across the typically one to tens of percent energy spread bunches and therefore help diagnosis and optimization of the plasma interaction. We report on progress in designing such an experiment.