26–31 Jul 2026
Luskin Conference Center, UCLA
US/Pacific timezone

Recent Advances in Plasma Wakefield Acceleration at FACET-II

27 Jul 2026, 09:45
30m
Ballroom (Luskin Conference Center)

Ballroom

Luskin Conference Center

Invited plenary Invited Talks

Speaker

Doug Storey (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Description

At the FACET-II national user facility, plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) experiments are advancing beam-driven concepts towards application-relevant performance. Using a 10 GeV, high brightness electron beam and a variety of plasma sources, we demonstrate stable, multi-GeV acceleration of externally and internally injected witness beams. In two-bunch linac operation with a 40 cm Li vapor plasma source, we achieve witness energy gains exceeding 5 GeV with sub‑percent relative energy spread and drive‑to‑witness energy transfer efficiencies greater than 10%. Machine learning-enabled beam tuning is used to improve beam density and transverse alignment between bunches, enhancing energy-transfer efficiency and limiting emittance growth. We will also report on the operation of a plasma brightness transformer using density downramp injection to simultaneously boost the energy and brightness of an electron bunch injected from the plasma, and other recent results.

Working group WG3

Author

Doug Storey (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Presentation materials