Hybrid LWFA-PWFA staging as a beam energy and brightness transformer: conceptual design and simulations

• Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences Vol. 377; no. 2151; p. 20180175
• Main Authors: Martinez de la Ossa, A, Assmann, R W, Bussmann, M, Corde, S, Couperus Cabadağ, J P, Debus, A, Döpp, A, Ferran Pousa, A, Gilljohann, M F, Heinemann, T, Hidding, B, Irman, A, Karsch, S, Kononenko, O, Kurz, T, Osterhoff, J, Pausch, R, Schöbel, S, Schramm, U
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society Publishing 12-08-2019
• Subjects: high brightness; hybrid; beam quality transformer; beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator; laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator
• ISSN: 1364-503X; 1471-2962; 1471-2962
• DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0175

We present a conceptual design for a hybrid laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator (LWFA) to beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA). In this set-up, the output beams from an LWFA stage are used as input beams of a new PWFA stage. In the PWFA stage, a new witness beam of largely increased quality can be produced and accelerated to higher energies. The feasibility and the potential of this concept is shown through exemplary particle-in-cell simulations. In addition, preliminary simulation results for a proof-of-concept experiment in Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany) are shown. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Directions in particle beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration'.