Internal injection of electrons into a plasma wake-field on a plasma cathode at FLASHForward

Abstract

The expanding footprint of conventional accelerators in recent years has motivated a similar expansion of research into novel accelerator technologies. Plasma-based accelerators offer the potential of a compact accelerator with gradients exceeding the GVm−1 mark and to therefore an increased availability of high-energy charged-particle beams. However, a significant amount of research and development is still required in order to bring the technology into a state with the high degree of reliability required from modern accelerators. Once such aspect is the production, trapping and acceleration of a witness bunch within these intense fields, which this thesis aims to address. While many techniques exist and are in various states of development, this thesis centres on just one. Here the steps required to carry out the first stable demonstration of Laser Triggered Density Down-ramp injection are outlined. These steps include a feasibility study exploring the experimental parameter space and the set-up of the experiment, followed by the experimental results demonstrating the stability and control offered by the methods used.