Generation of a Passive, Underdense Plasma Lens for the Focusing of Relativistic Electron Beams

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/c821gm461

Abstract

The viability of a plasma wakefield accelerator is limited by the projected emittance growth of an accelerated electron beam due to chromatic phase spreading. This can be mitigated through beam-matching via use of a plasma lens, which offers greatly-increased performance when compared to conventional quadrupole magnetic focusing. We conducted experiments using a proposed cylindrical-lens telescope with multiple laser systems, and found that in stallation and alignment of this lens system is possible without high-precision components. A properly-sized incident laser beam, focused through these lenses, reaches the optimal dimensions to ionize a plasma lens for use in a plasma wakefield accelerator. We measured the best focus to have a minor axis of 34.5 ± 3.45 μm and a major axis of 120.75 ± 3.45 μm, which compares favorably with the predicted minor axis of 37.4 μm and major axis of 118.5 μm.

Creator