Chappell, James;
(2021)
Experimental study of long timescale plasma wakefield evolution.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Over the last century, particle accelerators have significantly enhanced our understanding of the fundamental nature of the universe and, as such, have become ubiquitous tools within society. The continued search for explanations of phenomena beyond our current best models motivates the proposal of ever-larger and more expensive particle accelerators. However, the economic impact of building and operating such machines potentially casts doubt on their delivery. The exploration of alternative acceleration concepts that can potentially provide a reduction in the size and cost of these machines has therefore seen a significant growth in interest over the past few decades. One such acceleration concept is that of plasma-based wakefield acceleration where high-intensity particle or laser beams strongly perturb a plasma and, in doing so, generate fields in their wake that can be used to accelerate charged particles. This is an attractive concept as plasmas can support accelerating fields multiple orders of magnitude larger than those provided in conventional accelerators, potentially reducing the accelerating length by similar scales. While rapid progress has recently been made with regards to high-quality acceleration in plasma, comparatively little effort has been applied to the study of the frequency at which this is possible. The measurements presented in this thesis study the evolution of a plasma as the energy imparted into it via the wakefield acceleration process dissipates. Such detailed measurements allow determination of the fundamental mechanisms that will limit high-repetition-rate operation of plasma-based accelerators. As such, these measurements represent a significant first step towards the demonstration of plasma-based acceleration at frequencies comparable to those provided by state-of-the-art conventional accelerators, helping to define the achievable luminosity of future facilities that rely on such technology.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Experimental study of long timescale plasma wakefield evolution |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2021. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10134739 |
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