DIAGNOSTIC STUDIES OF A PINCH PLASMA ACCELERATOR

Characterization of a theta-pinch plasma using triple probe diagnostic

Plasma diagnostics were carried out in a theta-pinch device to investigate the applicability for plasma– material interaction under fusion-like conditions. A series of triple probe diagnostics show that the plasma is sustained for approximately 80 ls at each pulse, with 3.0 (10) m 3 plasma density and up to 40 eV electron temperature when a 32 lF main capacitor is discharged at 20 kV. In order ...

A Plasma Wake Field Accelerator*

Positron Production in a Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

In a visit on Oct. 28, 1996 to the Center for Ultrafast Optical Studies at U. Michigan I had interesting conversations with Gerard Mourou and Don Umstadter about possible mechanisms for positron production in a plasma that is illuminated with a strong laser. I argue that positron production via a trident process (which includes Bethe-Heitler pair production) involving an isolated nucleus is pos...

Bunched Beam Injection in a Plasma Accelerator

An experiment on phase-locked injection of ~ 100 fs electron bunches in a plasma beat wave accelerator is presented. We consider using an IFEL microbunching technique to produce ultrashort electron bunches prebunched at the exact wavelength of the plasma wave 340 Jim (~lTHz). It is proposed to generate 100 MW of 1 THz radiation by difference frequency generation in a nonlinear crystal, mixing t...

A Meter-Scale Plasma Wakefield Accelerator

Plasma wakefield accelerators (PWFA) have recently shown substantial progress, attaining accelerating fields of more than 30 GV/m. The goal of the present experiment is to show that such accelerating fields can be sustained over the scale of a meter, resulting in a total energy gain comparable to the entire SLAC linear accelerator. We also seek to determine which factors limit the length of the...