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| Home > Documents in process > Capillary discharge plasma sources and diagnostics for plasma wakefield acceleration at FLASHForward, DESY |
| Home > Documents in process > Capillary discharge plasma sources and diagnostics for plasma wakefield acceleration at FLASHForward, DESY |
| Poster | PUBDB-2025-05720 |
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2025
Abstract: FLASHForward at DESY is a cutting-edge plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) facilitywhere electron beams from the FLASH linac are accelerated in plasmas with highaccelerating gradients of approximately 1 GV/m. The plasmas are created by high-voltagedischarges and are confined in sapphire capillaries. The quality and stability of theaccelerated electron beams depend not only on the drive and witness particle beamproperties but also strongly on the plasma properties, which are influenced by the plasmacapillary design and the discharge and gas parameters. A dedicated laboratory has beenestablished to design and commission these plasma capillaries, and to characterize andoptimize the properties of the produced plasmas. This work presents recent progress fromthe laboratory, including the development of a novel 0.5 m-long plasma cell designed tofacilitate 0.5 GeV witness-bunch acceleration. It was found that a glow discharge wasnecessary to reduce discharge timing fluctuations and that a geometry incorporating a virtualcathode aids in this process. Experimental results, optimizations, and simulations will bepresented. Comprehensive plasma density measurements were performed using opticalemission spectroscopy, which demonstrated that the plasma properties remained consistentover many ×10⁵ discharge events. These developments aim to enhance the performanceand reliability of the PWFA process with large energy gains, where the tolerances on theplasma parameters become ever more tight. The findings demonstrate significant progress inplasma characterization and stability control, offering insights into improving beam qualityand energy stability in next-generation accelerators.
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