Preparations for a plasma wakefield acceleration (PWA) experiment at PITZ

Self-modulation of particle beams in a plasma was proposed as a new concept to enable plasma wakefield acceleration with long driver beams. An experiment is in preparation at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY, Zeuthen site (PITZ), to demonstrate and characterize self-modulation of an electron beam. Key elements for this are the highly flexible photocathode laser system and the well-developed beam diagnostics. Preparations for the experiment have started at PITZ. In a first step a suitable insertion point for the plasma cell was determined with beam dynamics simulations. It was decided to use laser ionization to generate the plasma since this technique is capable of providing a homogeneous plasma channel with sufficient size (1 mm diameter, 60 mm length) and density (1015cm−3). Two different ways were found to generate the plasma, utilizing either field ionization with a 1 TW Ti:Sapphire laser or single photon ionization with a 400 mJ ArF excimer laser. As opposed to previously realized designs the ionization laser is coupled from the side, orthogonally to the electron beam direction.