Correlations between X-rays, Visible Light and Drive-Beam Energy Loss Observed in Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiments at FACET-II

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2404.19169
• Publication Date: 2024-08-01
• Authors: Chaojie Zhang; Doug Storey; Pablo San Miguel ...; Zan Nie; Ken A. Marsh; Warren B. Mori; Erik Adli; Weiming An; Robert Ariniello; Gevy J. Cao; Christine Clark; Sebastien Corde; Thamine Dalichaouch; Christopher E. Doss; Claudio Emma; Henrik Ekerfelt; Elias Gerstmayr; Spencer Gessner; Claire Hansel; Alexander Knetsch; Valentina Lee; Fei Li; Mike Litos; Brendan O'Shea; Glen White; Gerry Yocky; Viktoriia Zakharova; Mark Hogan; Chan Joshi
• Keywords: Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph); Accelerator Physics (physics.acc-ph); FOS: Physical sciences; Physics - Accelerator Physics; Physics - Plasma Physics

This study documents several correlations observed during the first run of the plasma wakefield acceleration experiment E300 conducted at FACET-II, using a single drive electron bunch. The established correlations include those between the measured maximum energy loss of the drive electron beam and the integrated betatron X-ray signal, the calculated total beam energy deposited in the plasma and the integrated X-ray signal, among three visible light emission measuring cameras and between the visible plasma light and X-ray signal. The integrated X-ray signal correlates almost linearly with both the maximum energy loss of the drive beam and the energy deposited into the plasma, demonstrating its usability as a measure of energy transfer from the drive beam to the plasma. Visible plasma light is found to be a useful indicator of the presence of a wake at three locations that overall are two metres apart. Despite the complex dynamics and vastly different time scales, the X-ray radiation from the drive bunch and visible light emission from the plasma may prove to be effective non-invasive diagnostics for monitoring the energy transfer from the beam to the plasma in future high-repetition-rate experiments.