One Gev Beam Acceleration in a One Meter Long Plasma Cell

A plasma-based wakefield acceleration (PWFA) experiment is proposed that will accelerate parts of an SLC bunch by up to 1 GeV/m over a length of 1 m. A single SLC bunch is used to both induce wakefields in the one meter long plasma and to witness the resulting beam acceleration. The proposed experiment will explore and further develop the techniques that are needed to apply high-gradient plasma wakefield acceleration to large scale accelerators. The one meter length of the experiment is about two orders of magnitude larger than other high gradient PWFA experiments and the 1 GeV/m accelerating gradient is roughly ten times larger than that achieved with conventional metallic structures. Using existing SLAC facilities, the proposed experiment will allow the study of high gradient acceleration at the forefront of advanced accelerator research.