New model of calculating the energy transfer efficiency for the spherical theta-pinch device

Ion-beam-plasma-interaction plays an important role in the field of Warm Dense Matter (WDM) and Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF). A spherical theta pinch is proposed to act as a plasma target in various applications including a plasma stripper cell. One key parameter for such applications is the free electron density. A linear dependency of this density to the amount of energy transferred into the plasma from an energy storage was found by C. Teske. Since the amount of stored energy is known, the energy transfer efficiency is a reliable parameter for the design of a spherical theta pinch device. The traditional two models of energy transfer efficiency are based on assumptions which comprise the risk of systematical errors. To obtain precise results, this paper proposes a new model without the necessity of any assumption to calculate the energy transfer efficiency for an inductively coupled plasma device. Further, a comparison of these three different models is given at a fixed operation voltage for the full range of working gas pressures. Due to the inappropriate assumptions included in the traditional models, one owns a tendency to overestimate the energy transfer efficiency whereas the other leads to an underestimation. Applying our new model to a wide spread set of operation voltages and gas pressures, an overall picture of the energy transfer efficiency results

Status Report on the Hydrodynamic Simulations of a Tapered Plasma Lens for Optical Matching at the ILC e+e^+ Source

The International Linear Collider is a planned electron-positron linear collider with its positron source producing positrons by aiming undulator radiation onto a rotating target. The resulting, highly divergent positron beam requires immediate optical matching to improve the luminosity and therefore the success of the intended collision experiments. Here, optical matching refers to the process of capturing particles and making them available for downstream beamline elements like accelerators. In the past, this has been done with sophisticated coils, but more recently the usage of a current-carrying plasma, a so-called plasma lens, has been proposed as an alternative. For the International Linear Collider idealised particle tracking simulations have already been done with the purpose of finding the optimal plasma lens design with respect to the captured positron yield. The proposed design is characterised by a linearly widened radius in beam direction. Now further research and development of this design is required, including both experiments with a prototype set-up as well as corresponding simulations modelling the hydrodynamics of the current-carrying plasma and the resulting magnetic field. The accuracy of the latter will benefit greatly from the former. In this work, first preliminary hydrodynamic simulations instil confidence into further endeavours.Comment: Talk presented at the International Workshop on Future Linear Colliders (LCWS 2023), 15-19 May 2023. C23-05-15.

Photocathode laser based bunch shaping for high transformer ratio plasma wakefield acceleration

Beam driven plasma acceleration is one of the most promising candidates for future compact particle accelerator technologies. In this scheme a particle bunch drives a wake in a plasma medium. The fields inside of the wake can be used to accelerate a trailing witness bunch. To maximise the ratio between acceleration of the witness to deceleration of the drive bunch, the so called transformer ratio, several methods have been proposed. The ones yielding the most favorable results are based on shaped drive bunches that are long in terms of the plasma wavelength. We present here methods to create such drive bunches employing temporally shaped UV-laser pulses for the extraction of electron bunches from a photo-electron gun. Theoretical considerations, experimental results and possibilities for further improvements are discussed

Emittance Reduction of RF Photoinjector Generated Electron Beams by Transverse Laser Beam Shaping

Laser pulse shaping is one of the key elements to generate low emittance electron beams with RF photoinjectors. Ultimately high performance can be achieved with ellipsoidal laser pulses, but 3-dimensional shaping is challenging. High beam quality can also be reached by simple transverse pulse shaping, which has demonstrated improved beam emittance compared to a transversely uniform laser in the 'pancake' photoemission regime. In this contribution we present the truncation of a Gaussian laser at a radius of approximately one sigma in the intermediate (electron bunch length directly after emission about the same as radius) photoemission regime with high acceleration gradients (up to 60 MV/m). This type of electron bunch is used e.g. at the European XFEL and FLASH free electron lasers at DESY, Hamburg site and is being investigated in detail at the Photoinjector Test facility at DESY in Zeuthen (PITZ). Here we present ray-tracing simulations and experimental data of a laser beamline upgrade enabling variable transverse truncation. Initial projected emittance measurements taken with help of this setup are shown, as well as supporting beam dynamics simulations. Additional simulations show the potential for substantial reduction of slice emittance at PITZ. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Energy-Spread Preservation and High Efficiency in a Plasma-Wakefield Accelerator

Energy-efficient plasma-wakefield acceleration of particle bunches with low energy spread is a promising path to realizing compact free-electron lasers and particle colliders. High efficiency and low energy spread can be achieved simultaneously by strong beam loading of plasma wakefields when accelerating bunches with carefully tailored current profiles [M. Tzoufras et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 145002 (2008)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.101.145002]. We experimentally demonstrate such optimal beam loading in a nonlinear electron-driven plasma accelerator. Bunches with an initial energy of 1 GeV were accelerated by 45 MeV with an energy-transfer efficiency of (42±4)% at a gradient of 1.3  GV/m while preserving per-mille energy spreads with full charge coupling, demonstrating wakefield flattening at the few-percent level

A high transformer ratio scheme for PITZ PWFA experiments

In the field of plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) sig-nificant progress has been made throughout the recent years.However, an important issue in building plasma based ac-celerators that provide particle bunches suitable for userapplications will be a high transformer ratio, i.e. the ra-tio between maximum accelerating field in the witness andmaximum decelerating fields in the driver bunch. The trans-former ratio for symmetrical bunches in an overdense plasmais naturally limited to 2. Theory and simulations show thatthis limit can be exceeded using asymmetrical bunches. Ex-perimentally this was proven in RF-structures, but not inPWFA. To study transformer ratios above this limit in thelinear regime of a plasma wake, an experimental schemetailored to the unique capabilities of the Photoinjector TestFacility at DESY Zeuthen site (PITZ), a 25-MeV electronaccelerator, is being investigated. The numerical simula-tions of beam transport and plasma wakefields, as well aspreparatory studies on the photocathode laser system andplasma sources are presented

High Gradient Pulsed Quadrupoles for Novel Accelerators and Space Charge Limited Beam Transport

Novel acceleration schemes like plasma wake-field based accelerators demand for high gradient focusing elements to match the Twiss parameters in the plasma to the transport lattice of the conventional accelerator beamlines, with typically much higher beta-functions. There are multiple candidates for achieving high gradient focusing fields, each one having certain drawbacks. Permanent magnets are limited in tunability, plasma lenses might degrade the transverse beam quality significantly and conventional magnets cannot reach very high gradients and often cannot be placed in direct proximity of the plasma accelerator because of their size. In this paper we present design considerations and simulations on compact, high gradient, pulsed quadrupoles, that could be used e.g. for final focusing of space charge dominated bunches into a LWFA (Laser Wake-Field Accelerator) at SINBAD or other facilities with similar demands. The target design gradient is 200 T/m at a physical aperture on the order of 10 mm