5th generation light sources based on underdense photocathode plasma wakefield acceleration
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The central importance of high-brightness, monochromatic, extremely short radiation pulses (with fs-duration) generated by a free-electron laser, which gives an in-depth insight into the structure of matter makes the development of free- electron laser (FEL) immensely attractive. Science, information technology, industry and medical benefit from such devices like FEL and moved forward in the past the respective discipline in their work. The above-mentioned radiation sources need high quality electron-beams with energy in the range of few hundred MeV up to tens of GeV, uncorrelated energy spread at the level of 0.1%, low emittance (emittance < 0.1mm - mrad) and high current (kA range). Currently the accelerating gradients in superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities are in order of 100MV/m, meaning that an electron beam would require one meters of such SRF cavities to reach 100 MeV beam energy. Therefore, XFEL facility based on SRF technique becomes extremely bulky and expensive. Towards 5th generation light sources, future accelerators will require novel techniques for more compact designs at moderate costs. Much higher accelerating gradients can be realized by plasmas cavities. The acceleration gradients in thus plasmas cavities can be up to 100GV/m or more. Injecting electrons and trapping them in the plasmas cavities enable the potential to accelerate electrons to high energy in cm scale. This reduces significantly in size and cost, which may leads to a university laboratory scale FEL-facility. Injecting electrons into this plasmas cavity is a significant challenge in the PWFA community. One proposed, promising method is the plasma underdense photocathode (also called the "Trojan Horse") technique for directly injecting electrons in to the blowout due to a moderately intense laser-pulse. This method can potentially produce high quality electron beams with emittances down to nm level. With the "Trojan Horse"-technique generated electrons may be suitable for devices such as university-scale compact FEL and enlarged worldwide the access to XFEL facilities. In order to meet the requirement on electron beams for FEL the quality plasma accelerator based electron beams need to be improved further, i.e mainly in term of energy spread. In addition, a not negligible aspect of a 5th generation light sources is extraction and transport of electron beams generated in plasma accelerator to the aimed application. In particular potential transport optics has to avoid electron beam degradation.
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/N509760/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2021 | |||
| 1823175 | Studentship | EP/N509760/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2020 | Ahmad Habib |
| Description | Relativistic high-quality electron beams are required to power laboratory-scale x-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) for applications such as femto-chemistry, material, and life science. Producing high quality electron beams for compact XFEL is a shared challenge within the scientific community. The underdense photocathode plasma wakefield acceleration (aka "Trojan Horse"-injection) is a promising approach to produce electron beams with the required quality. However, electron beams from plasma accelerators have a large inherent energy spread/energy chirp. This leads to a number of issues downstream the accelerator. Electron beams with large energy spread will lead to quality degradation at the transport system and may even prevent lasing at undulator section. Hence, towards a plasma-based accelerator driven XFEL, three main challenges have been solved in this work. Generation of ultra-bright electron beams with ultra-low energy spread for XFEL application: The plasma wakefield accelerator is optimized to produce electron beams with the highest quality (ultra-high 5D brightness beams). Further, a novel method for electron beam phase space shaping have been developed to reduce the energy spread of electron beams by two orders of magnitude down to 0.1%-level. The low energy spread combined with the ultra-high 5D brightness results in electron beams with unprecedented ultra-high 6D brightness which exceeds even Linac Coherent Light Source level beams by orders of magnitude. The results from this study are published in Nature communication and are patented for commercialization of the technology. Demonstration of electron beam extraction from the plasma stage and transport in charge particle beam optics: At exit of the plasma stage plasma tailored density down ramps are required to make sure that electron beam quality is conserved. The study revealed that an adiabatically shaped density down ramp at the exit allows a safe electron beam extraction. Downstream of the accelertor a charged particle beams optic lattice consisting of quadruples and dipoles is designed and optimized to transport the high-quality electron beam. Electron beam quality degradation reported by onther studies is successfully mitigated here and the electron beam is transported and matched to the undulator section This significant improvement is because of the low energy spread beams and the carefully tailored transport line for the electron beam from the plasma wakefield accelerators. Demonstration of ultra-short coherent hard X-Ray radiation pulse generation: The undulator set up is carefully design to meet the tight lasing conditions for hard X-ray FELs. Simulation results show that the size of the XFEL is reduced from km down to few meters. This is because the ultra-high brightness of the electron beams reduces the so-called gain length significantly. The pulse duration is in the sub-fs range, the radiation power is of the order of tens of GW, radiation wavelength is in the hard x-ray range (0.5-0.1 nm) and can be decreased even to sub-0.1 nm level. This work demonstrates for the first time in an advance start-to-end-simulation that a laboratory-scale x-ray free-electron laser can be realized in a near future because now fundamental challenges have been solved. Systematic solutions are provided to overcome the obstacles which have been showstopper in the scientific community for years. This opens the path toward a compact plasma accelerator based XFEL. The results from this study are in preparation for a publication. |
| Exploitation Route | X-ray radiation is utilized widely in research and industry. Applications are ranking from material science to biotechnology. Coherent x-ray radiation pulses from a free-electron laser will allow investigating the matter at the natural length and time scale. It will enable observation of electron beam dynamic in materials and human body proteins. For example, a better understanding how medications interact on a molecular level will help biotechnology industry producing "designer" medications or more accurate investigation of materials may allow to find new approaches for the semiconductor challenge. This are only few examples but the many more sector in academic and non-academic which can benefit from these results. This work will be continued within the group and our collaborators. |
| Sectors | Chemicals,Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology,Security and Diplomacy |
| URL | http://ppals.phys.strath.ac.uk/ |
| Description | APS DPP Student Travel Grant |
| Amount | $1,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | American Physical Society |
| Sector | Learned Society |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 11/2017 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Title | Single-stage plasma-based correlated energy spread compensation for ultrahigh 6D brightness electron beams |
| Description | This data set contains raw data from the theoretical analysis and particle-in-cell simulation. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This dataset allows sharing the scientific outcome from the study with the research community. |
| URL | https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/datasets/single-stage-plasma-based-correlated-energy-spread-compe... |
| Description | FLASHForward DESY Collaburation |
| Organisation | Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY) |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We work closely with the FLASH Forward facility at Desy in Hamburg to advance the progress in the X-1: Plasma Cathode experiment which is one of the core experimental programmes at the facility. We engage in experimental preparation work and provide numerical modeling results. See X-1: Plasma Cathode: http://forward.desy.de/scientific_programme/core_experiments/x_1/ |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our partners provide financial support and maintenance of the facility. |
| Impact | The result of this collaboration is preliminary experiment results which will be used as guidance in future experiments. Further, multiple external experimental proposals have been submitted to the FLASHForwar facility and have been successfully approved in a panel review process. The work conducted within the collaboration combines engineering, plasma physics, laser beam, and charged particle beam physics. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Title | PLASMA ACCELERATOR |
| Description | A method of accelerating charged particles in a plasma and an associated plasma accelerator and electromagnetic radiation source, the method including creating a region of non-uniform electric field within the plasma which propagates through the plasma; using the non-uniform electric field to accelerate a first plurality of charged particles in the direction of propagation of the region of non-uniform electric field; and once the accelerating first plurality of charged particles have propagated part-way through the plasma: adding a second plurality of charged particles to the plasma, such that the second plurality of charged particles propagates through the plasma, the second plurality of charged particles create a local distortion in the non-uniform electric field experienced by the accelerating first plurality of charged particles, and the local distortion in the non-uniform electric field propagates through the plasma with the accelerating first plurality of charged particles; and the method also including using the local distortion in the non-uniform electric field to accelerate the first plurality of charged particles in the direction of propagation of the region of non-uniform electric field. |
| IP Reference | WO2018069670 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | Further licensing are in development but are currently under commercial confidence. |
| Title | System for Radiation Therapy |
| Description | Currently confidential |
| IP Reference | PG449042GR |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2019 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | This patent attracted a market survey with 10k £ funding which is currently conducted by the intellectual property and knowledge exchange department within the University of Strathclyde. |
| Title | PicViz |
| Description | We developed a python based tool to analyses simulation results from Particle-In-Cell Codes more efficiently. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | PicViz enabled to improve our understanding of the results we produced in simulations. |
| Description | AAC 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research results communication |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://aac2018.org/ |
| Description | Boosting the electron beam brightness: NeXource |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This press release informed the accelerator physics community about the recent advances in plasma-based wakefield acceleration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://accelerating-news-arc.web.cern.ch/content/boosting-electron-beam-brightness-nexource |
| Description | EAAC 2017 Conference contribution |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Communication of research outcome |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://agenda.infn.it/event/12611/ |
| Description | The brightest electron beams of the world |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This press release informs the scientific community about a potential solution to one of the major challenges in the plasma-based wakefield accelerators namely the energy spread of the electron beams. This press release potentially sparked further studies within the scientific community in this direction. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.eupraxia-project.eu/the-brightest-electron-beams-of-the-world.html |
| Description | Ultrahigh 6D-brightness electron beams for the next generation light sources |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of research results to plasma wakefield accelerator experts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017APS..DPPUO5013H |