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Laser-driven plasma wakefields can provide hundreds of MeV electron beam in mm-range distances potentially shrinking the dimension of the actual particle accelerators. The plasma density plays a fundamental role in the control and stability of the acceleration process, which is a key development for the future electron injector proposed by EuPRAXIA. A gas cell was designed by LPGP and LIDYL teams, with variable length and backing pressure, to confine the gas and tailor the gas density profile before the arrival of the laser. This cell was used during an experimental campaign with the multi TW-class laser at the Lund Laser Centre. Ionization assisted injection in a tailored density profile is used to tune the electron beam properties. During the experiment, we filled the gas cell with hydrogen mixed with different concentration of nitrogen. We also varied the backing pressure of the gas and the geometrical length of the gas cell. We used a transverse probe to acquire shadowgraphic images of the plasma and to measure the plasma electron density. Methods and results of the analysis with comparisons between shadowgraphic and interferometric images will be discussed., Comment: Approved by JINST

Journal of Instrumentation 17(05), P05042 (2022). doi:10.1088/1748-0221/17/05/P05042 special issue: "ICFA Beam Dynamics Newsletter 83", The Beam Delivery System (BDS) is a critical component of a high-energy linear collider. It transports the beam from the accelerator and brings it to a focus at the Interaction Point. The BDS system includes diagnostic sections for measuring the beam energy, emittance, and polarization, as well as collimators for machine protection. The length of the BDS increases with collision energy. Higher collision energies also require higher luminosities, and this is a significant constraint on the design for energy-frontier machines. Here, we review BDS designs based on traditional quadrupole magnets and examine the challenges involved in extending these to the Multi-TeV regime consistent with requirements for advanced accelerator concepts., Published by Inst. of Physics, London

Laser accelerated proton beams represent nowadays an attractive alternative to the conventional ones and they have been proposed in different research fields. In particular, the interest has been focused in the possibility of replacing conventional accelerating machines with laser-based accelerators in order to develop a new concept of hadrontherapy facilities, which could result more compact and less expensive. With this background the ELIMED (ELIMED: ELI-Beamlines MEDical applications) research project has been launched by LNS-INFN researchers (Laboratori Nazionali del Sud-Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Catania, IT) and ASCR-FZU researchers (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic-Fyzikalni ustar, Prague, Cz), within the pan-European ELI-Beamlines facility framework. Its main purposes are the demonstration of future applications in hadrontherapy of optically accelerated protons and the realization of a laser-accelerated ion transport beamline for multidisciplinary applications. Several challenges, starting from laser-target interaction and beam transport development, up to dosimetric and radiobiological issues, need to be overcome in order to reach the final goals. The design and the realization of a preliminary beam handling and dosimetric system and of an advanced spectrometer for high energy (multi-MeV) laser-accelerated ion beams will be shortly presented in this work.

Advanced particle accelerators are based on the excitation of large amplitude plasma waves driven by either electron or laser beams. Future experiments scheduled at the SPARC_LAB test facility aim to demonstrate the acceleration of high brightness electron beams through the so-called resonant Plasma Wakefield Acceleration scheme in which a train of electron bunches (drivers) resonantly excites wakefields into a preformed hydrogen plasma; the last bunch (witness) injected at the proper accelerating phase gains energy from the wake. The quality of the accelerated beam depends strongly on plasma density and its distribution along the acceleration length. The measurements of plasma density of the order of 1016–1017 cm−3 can be performed with spectroscopic measurements of the plasma-emitted light. The measured density distribution for hydrogen filled capillary discharge with both Balmer alpha and Balmer beta lines and shot-to-shot variation are here reported.

Single shot transverse emittance measurement is essential to assess the beam quality and performance of new generation light sources such as linac based X-ray Free Electron Lasers (FELs) or laser plasma wakefield accelerators (LPWA). To this end, we have developed a single shot transverse emittance measurement using at least 3 screens inserted in the beam at the same time, measuring the beam size at different positions in a drift space in one single shot. In this paper, we firstly present the theoretical aspects to perform the measurement. We secondly show experimental results obtained at Diamond for a 3 GeV electron beam in the transfer line from the Booster to the Storage Ring, using this thin OTR screens method. Finally, we discuss the results showing the strength of the measurement in comparison with more standard and established emittance measurement, like the quadrupole scan method. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA.