The FLASHForward Facility at DESY
physics.acc-ph
/ Authors
A. Aschikhin, C. Behrens, S. Bohlen, J. Dale, N. Delbos, L. di Lucchio, E. Elsen, J. -H. Erbe, M. Felber, B. Foster
and 28 more authors
L. Goldberg, J. Grebenyuk, J. -N. Gruse, B. Hidding, Zhanghu Hu, S. Karstensen, A. Knetsch, O. Kononenko, V. Libov, K. Ludwig, A. R. Maier, A. Martinez de la Ossa, T. Mehrling, C. A. J. Palmer, F. Pannek, L. Schaper, H. Schlarb, B. Schmidt, S. Schreiber, J. -P. Schwinkendorf, H. Steel, M. Streeter, G. Tauscher, V. Wacker
/ Abstract
The FLASHForward project at DESY is a pioneering plasma-wakefield acceleration experiment that aims to produce, in a few centimetres of ionised hydrogen, beams with energy of order GeV that are of quality sufficient to be used in a free-electron laser. The plasma wave will be driven by high-current density electron beams from the FLASH linear accelerator and will explore both external and internal witness-beam injection techniques. The plasma is created by ionising a gas in a gas cell with a multi-TW laser system, which can also be used to provide optical diagnostics of the plasma and electron beams due to the <30 fs synchronisation between the laser and the driving electron beam. The operation parameters of the experiment are discussed, as well as the scientific program.