Plasma staging (IMAGE)

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Plasma staging

Caption

This graphic shows how a staged plasma wakefield accelerator works. Lower left box: A train of electron bunches (blue spheres) travel through a particle accelerator. One of the electron bunches enters the plasma (pink), creating a plasma wake, like the wake behind a boat that is moving across water. This technique allows the primary electron bunch (yellow), which will be used for experiments, to "surf" on the plasma wake, reaching higher energies than without using a plasma wakefield. Middle section: The electron bunches travel through a chicane, which allows the lead electron bunch (blue dotted line) to be swapped out by a fresh electron bunch. Upper right box: The fresh electron bunch (solid blue bunch within the pink plasm) takes over and continues to drive the primary electron bunch (yellow) to even higher energies. The old electron drive bunch (dotted blue) how trails behind the plasma and fresh electron bunches. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Credit

(Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

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