Plasma control and diagnostics for 10 GeV electron beams on BELLA

To advance the current state-of-the-art of capillary-based laser plasma accelerators (LPAs), the tunability of capillary discharge plasma channels needs to be improved. We present the techniques used to determine critical properties of the plasma density distribution. Independent tailoring of plasma channel width and on-axis density are required to produce higher energy electron beams with existing facilities. A scheme involving an additional, nanosecond laser pulse to locally heat the channel has been proposed previously. We discuss recent progress on the implementation of this scheme, demonstrating a heating effect on the plasma channel as evidenced from nanosecond-resolved spectroscopy on transversely emitted plasma light. PIC simulations indicate the possibility of accelerating high charge beams up to 8.4 GeV average energy if other technique advances are made as well. These include the need for longer plasma channels of 10s of centimeters, low plasma density and an ionization injection scheme to inje...