Advanced Accelerator Concepts 2026

Session

A6-Working group # 6

27 Jul 2026, 16:00

Legacy A (Luskin)

7. Experimental Design and First Results from the Plasma-Driven Attosecond X-Ray Experiment at FACET-II

Rafi Hessami (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

27/07/2026, 16:00

To be considered for Working Group talk

The ongoing Plasma-driven Attosecond X-ray source experiment (PAX) at FACET-II aims to produce coherent soft X-ray pulses of attosecond duration using a plasma wakefield accelerator [1]. These X-ray pulses can be used to study chemical processes where attosecond-scale electron motion is important. For this first stage of the experiment, PAX plans to demonstrate that <100 nm bunch length...

25. Experimental demonstration of high-repetition-rate isolated attosecond pulses from a X-ray free-electron laser

Veronica Guo (Stanford University)

27/07/2026, 16:20

To be considered for Working Group talk

The ultrafast motion of electrons drives chemical reactions and underpins material properties. Investigating these ultrafast dynamics demands state-of-the-art light sources, frequently requiring pulses with attosecond duration. The use of soft X-ray pulses makes it possible to probe electronic densities with atomic-site specificity. X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) have increased the...

172. Ultracompact Strong-gain XFELs from High-field Plasma Wakefield Accelerators

Bernhard Hidding (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf / University of Strathclyde / The Cockcroft Institute)

27/07/2026, 16:40

To be considered for Working Group talk

Dephasingless high-field (>10-100 GV/m) plasma wakefield accelerators in the blowout regime can nowadays be experimentally realized in compact hybrid LWFA-PWFA accelerators [1]. These hybrids are ideal platforms for hosting plasma photocathodes [2], which require PWFA in the blowout regime for robust injection of ultralow (few tens of nm-rad) normalized emittance beams, and for emittance...

12. Over 8 hours of continuous operation of a free-electron laser driven by a laser-plasma accelerator

Finn Kohrell (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

27/07/2026, 17:00

To be considered for Working Group talk

Since the emergence of laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs), substantial work has been dedicated towards using LPAs to drive free-electron lasers (FELs) for a broad range of applications. Despite recent breakthroughs, which have proven the fundamental feasibility of operating FELs with an LPA source, stable FEL operation over multiple hours without operator input had yet to be achieved. In this...

11. Relativistic harmonics in the efficiency limit

Jonathan Kennedy (Queen's University Belfast)

27/07/2026, 17:20

To be considered for Working Group talk

Bright high-harmonic radiation from relativistically oscillating laser plasmas provides a direct route to generating extreme electromagnetic fields. Theory predicts that, under optimal conditions, the plasma can compress laser energy spatiotemporally into a Coherent Harmonic Focus (CHF), producing intensity boosts many orders of magnitude above the driving laser pulse. Diffraction-limited...

119. Relativistic Plasma Mirrors for Generating Bright Harmonics with Tuneable Polarization

Vedin Dewan (Princeton University)

27/07/2026, 17:40

To be considered for Working Group talk

A plasma mirror is formed when an intense laser pulse ionizes a solid target, creating an overdense plasma that reflects light specularly. In the relativistic regime($I \gtrsim 10^{18}Wcm^{-2}$ at $\lambda=800nm$), plasma mirrors generate high-order harmonics extending into the EUV and soft x-ray range. In the Coherent Synchrotron Emission (CSE) regime, relativistically driven electron...

151. Applications of a Compact Positron Source as a Source of Entangled Gamma Rays

Sophie Crisp (scrisp11@slac.stanford.edu)

28/07/2026, 13:30

To be considered for Working Group talk

We present a compact, ultrafast positron source design for SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory which will provide up to 100,000 e+/s at 30 Hz, with tunable energies from 1 to 5 MeV. A primary near-term application is precision-timed entangled gamma ray pair generation for next-generation PET (Positron Emission Tomography) detector development and calibration. Conventional PET detector testing...

164. A laser-based high average yield neutron source for medical applications

Prof. Karoly Osvay (Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC)

28/07/2026, 13:50

1

To be considered for Working Group talk

Generation of neutrons with lasers has been in the focus of research and development for over two decades. Such neutron sources exhibit unique properties as inherently pulsed operation, ultrashort pulse duration (around and below nanosecond), and small source size. Besides, the driving laser is not a nuclear device, and there are no proliferation issues. Hence, it is an inherently safe pulsed...

89. A platform for radiobiology research using very-high energy (VHEE) laser plasma accelerated electrons at BELLA

Lieselotte Obst-Huebl (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

28/07/2026, 14:10

2

To be considered for Working Group talk

External beam radiotherapy remains the standard of care for more than half of all cancer patients worldwide. In recent years, the use of very high energy electrons (VHEE) in the 50–250 MeV range has attracted considerable interest for radiotherapeutic applications, particularly in the treatment of deep-seated tumors. VHEE beams generated via laser-plasma acceleration (LPA) are characterized by...

185. Medical Applications of Ultrasound from Plasma-Accelerated Electrons

José Franco Altamirano (The University of Texas at Austin)

28/07/2026, 14:30

1

To be considered for Working Group talk

Radiation-induced Acoustic Computed Tomography is an imaging modality that combines the high penetrability of ionizing radiation with the flexibility of detection of ultrasounds. A single short pulse of electrons or x-rays locally heats an absorber inside the object of study, launching ultrasound waves in three dimensions that transducers outside the object detect. This enables image...

102. The Ultra-Compact FEL: High Imapact Application to

James Rosenzweig (UCLA Dept. of Physics and Astronomy)

28/07/2026, 14:50

To be considered for Working Group talk

The ultra-compact X-ray FEL (UC-XFEL) is an extremely attractive path for creating intense, coherent, short-wavelength light pulses. This scheme uniquely utilizesThe very high gradient cryo-RF for generating very high brightness electron beams, and accelerating thdm in short distances to GeV-class energy - both enabled by peak fields near 250 MV/m. This approach further permits use of very...

134. Single-event effect microelectronics testing using a compact laser-plasma accelerator electron source

Sarah Schröder (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

28/07/2026, 15:10

1

To be considered for Working Group talk

Single-event effects pose a significant concern for the reliability of electronic systems in radiation-intensive environments, such as avionics, space, and high-energy physics applications. Current single-event effect testing of microelectronics relies on heavy ion test facilities with limited accessibility and critical limitations in achievable penetration depth and energy deposition....

43. Nonlinear Inverse Compton Scattering experiments enabled by Long-Wave Infrared Laser in BNL ATF

Yusuke Sakai (Brookhaven National Lab)

30/07/2026, 13:30

2

To be considered for Working Group talk

Status and capabilities of nonlinear Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) experiments at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Accelerator Test Facility (ATF), utilizing a 9.3 µm Long-Wave Infrared (LWIR) CO2 laser is reported. Decades of long feasibility studies continue to expand further, through an upgraded multi-TW LWIR laser and optimized 85 MeV electron beam. Benchmarked laser parameters...

18. The STAR Project: Status of the Commissioning of the Compton Light-Source Infrastructure in Southern Italy.

Luigi Faillace (Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN))

30/07/2026, 13:50

1

To be considered for Working Group talk

The conditioning and initial commissioning activities of the STAR (Southern Europe Thomson Back-scattering Source for Applied Research) facility are currently underway at the University of Calabria in southern Italy. STAR is a compact X-ray source based on inverse Compton scattering (ICS) between a relativistic electron beam and an intense laser pulse. During this initial phase, all major...

139. Inverse Compton X-ray Source Commissioning at RadiaBeam

Maksim Kravchenko (RadiaBeam Technologies)

30/07/2026, 14:10

To be considered for Working Group talk

RadiaBeam Technologies has commissioned, characterized, and begun demonstrating applications of a highly tunable inverse Compton scattering (ICS) X-ray source based on a 100 MeV-class C-band electron linac. The photoinjector features a hybrid structure achieving sub-picosecond bunch compression within a compact footprint, suitable for a containerized final size. Two C-band linacs with...

37. Energy-resolved measurement of individual GeV muons from the BELLA PW Laser-Plasma Accelerator

Davide Terzani (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

30/07/2026, 14:30

1

To be considered for Working Group talk

Recently, the possibility of LPA-produced muon beams has gained significant interest within the accelerator physics community. At BELLA, we unambiguously detected muons generated during the interaction of multi-GeV electron beams with a 4 meter-thick electron beam dump. Building on the success of that initial experiment, we conducted a second campaign to extend our diagnostic capabilities to...

80. Muon scattering tomography with laser-plasma-accelerator-driven muon source

Kristjan Põder (MuRayTech GmbH)

30/07/2026, 14:50

1

To be considered for Working Group talk

Laser plasma accelerators (LPAs) can generate GeV scale electron beams in ultra-compact footprints, making them ideal drivers for various secondary sources. Among these is artificial muon generation, with various groups measuring LPA-driven muons recently. Muons are unstable, heavy elementary particles, that interact mostly by scattering off nuclei as they propagate through matter. This means...

168. Development of laser-plasma accelerators at HZDR for FEL applications

Susanne Schöbel (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf)

30/07/2026, 15:10

1

To be considered for Working Group talk

In 2022, FEL light generation driven by LPA-produced electron beams was successfully demonstrated. At Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), we particularly focus on the seeded FEL configuration using the COXINEL beamline. Our ongoing efforts in the development of LPA-generated beams are concentrating on improving beam quality to increase FEL gain and enable operation at shorter...

53. An MeV X-ray source from Laser Wakefield Acceleration based betatron radiation

Isabella Pagano (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

30/07/2026, 16:00

To be considered for Working Group talk

Laser-driven plasma X-ray sources are attractive for High Energy Density Science, particularly for diagnosing Inertial Confinement Fusion implosions and resolving the influence of hydrodynamic instabilities such as Rayleigh-Taylor growth. For these applications, an effective source must combine high spatial resolution (< 50 um) with photon energies reaching several hundred keV, sufficient to...

27. Direct laser acceleration and betatron radiation in arbitrary-velocity wakefields

Lavonne Mack

30/07/2026, 16:20

To be considered for Working Group talk

Electrons accelerated in the plasma wake of a high-intensity laser pulse can reach higher energies by interacting with a second, delayed pulse. The total energy gain depends on the phase velocity of the wake and the phase and group velocities of the pulses. With conventional pulses, these velocities are set by the plasma density, which limits the maximum energy gain. Here, we show that...

204. Shallow-angle and superradiant inverse Compton scattering

Brian Schaap (UCLA)

30/07/2026, 16:40

To be considered for Working Group talk

Compact Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) sources offer tunable radiation in the X-ray spectral range essential for a wide range of scientific and technological applications. Unfortunately, their utility is limited by low brightness compared to large-scale facilities, resulting from the small scattering cross-section and large emission opening angle. Here, we present two synergistic strategies...

26. Wavefront shaping of terahertz radiation using two-color flying-focus pulses

Amanda Elliott (Laboratory for Laser Energetics)

30/07/2026, 17:00

1

To be considered for Working Group talk

Properly phased two-color laser pulses drive photoionization currents that emit broadband THz radiation. With conventional two-color pulses, the ionization front travels at a nearly constant superluminal velocity, generating THz radiation with conical wavefronts at a Cherenkov-like angle. Here we show that the dynamic intensity peak of a two-color ultrashort flying-focus pulse can be used to...

201. Coherent Smith-Purcell radiation from plasma-accelerated electrons: a synchronized strong-field terahertz radiation source

Mike Downer (The University of Texas at Austin)

30/07/2026, 17:20

To be considered for Working Group talk

Undulating surface currents that charged particles induce in a metal grating as they pass over its facets at close range emit broadband Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR) into an angle-encoded fan of wavelengths 𝜆(𝜃), where the angle 𝜃 is measured from the particle propagation direction [1, 2]. If the length l = c𝜏 of a charged particle bunch of duration 𝜏 is shorter than the grating period d, then...

143. Results from the FACET-II E320 Strong-field QED program

Alexander Knetsch (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

30/07/2026, 17:40

To be considered for Working Group talk

The E-320 experiment at SLAC FACET-II aims to investigate Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) in the strong-field regime.
By colliding 10 GeV, high-quality electron beams with 10 TW NIR laser pulses it is aspired to probe the QED critical (Schwinger) intensity of 10E29 Wcm-2 in the electron rest frame. In this regime, characterized by X = E/Ecr>1, quantum corrections to classical synchrotron...