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Bright electron bunches from a plasma-wakefield accelerator with a steep density down-ramp

Wood, J. C. ; Boulton, L. ; Beinortaitė, J. ; Björklund Svensson, J. LU orcid ; Bohlen, S. ; Boyle, G. ; Garland, J. M. ; Gonzalez Caminal, P. ; Lindstrøm, C. A. and Loisch, G. , et al. (2026) In Nature Communications 17(1).
Abstract

High-brightness electron bunches drive fundamental research in particle physics and photon science. Key to achieving a high brightness is to have a low transverse emittance, which ensures that the bunch can be tightly focussed. In radiofrequency accelerators a low initial emittance can be rapidly degraded due to space charge forces, which are greatly diminished once the electron bunch attains a relativistic velocity. A plasma accelerator can maintain orders-of-magnitude higher accelerating fields than radiofrequency accelerators, while multiple techniques exist to create a low emittance electron bunch directly inside the plasma accelerator structure. Plasma accelerators therefore offer a possibility to create high-brightness bunches in... (More)

High-brightness electron bunches drive fundamental research in particle physics and photon science. Key to achieving a high brightness is to have a low transverse emittance, which ensures that the bunch can be tightly focussed. In radiofrequency accelerators a low initial emittance can be rapidly degraded due to space charge forces, which are greatly diminished once the electron bunch attains a relativistic velocity. A plasma accelerator can maintain orders-of-magnitude higher accelerating fields than radiofrequency accelerators, while multiple techniques exist to create a low emittance electron bunch directly inside the plasma accelerator structure. Plasma accelerators therefore offer a possibility to create high-brightness bunches in wakefields driven even by low-quality drive bunches. Here we demonstrate the injection and gigavolt-per-metre acceleration of electron bunches with mm-mrad normalised emittance, O(10 pC/MeV) spectral density and per-cent-level energy spread, all with excellent reproducibility.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Communications
volume
17
issue
1
article number
1588
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:41672976
  • scopus:105029865990
ISSN
2041-1723
DOI
10.1038/s41467-026-69283-6
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2026.
id
eff85377-17a8-4fd9-b161-4121c9d3caab
date added to LUP
2026-04-04 11:06:34
date last changed
2026-06-27 19:48:07
@article{eff85377-17a8-4fd9-b161-4121c9d3caab,
  abstract     = {{<p>High-brightness electron bunches drive fundamental research in particle physics and photon science. Key to achieving a high brightness is to have a low transverse emittance, which ensures that the bunch can be tightly focussed. In radiofrequency accelerators a low initial emittance can be rapidly degraded due to space charge forces, which are greatly diminished once the electron bunch attains a relativistic velocity. A plasma accelerator can maintain orders-of-magnitude higher accelerating fields than radiofrequency accelerators, while multiple techniques exist to create a low emittance electron bunch directly inside the plasma accelerator structure. Plasma accelerators therefore offer a possibility to create high-brightness bunches in wakefields driven even by low-quality drive bunches. Here we demonstrate the injection and gigavolt-per-metre acceleration of electron bunches with mm-mrad normalised emittance, O(10 pC/MeV) spectral density and per-cent-level energy spread, all with excellent reproducibility.</p>}},
  author       = {{Wood, J. C. and Boulton, L. and Beinortaitė, J. and Björklund Svensson, J. and Bohlen, S. and Boyle, G. and Garland, J. M. and Gonzalez Caminal, P. and Lindstrøm, C. A. and Loisch, G. and Mewes, S. M. and Parikh, T. and Peña, F. and Põder, K. and Schröder, S. and Thévenet, M. and Wesch, S. and Osterhoff, J. and D’Arcy, R.}},
  issn         = {{2041-1723}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Communications}},
  title        = {{Bright electron bunches from a plasma-wakefield accelerator with a steep density down-ramp}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69283-6}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41467-026-69283-6}},
  volume       = {{17}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}