Advanced diagnostics for AWAKE Run 2 Electron Beams

The Advanced WAKefield Experiment (AWAKE) located at CERN is the only laboratory in the world to experiment with a proton-driven plasma accelerator. Plasma accelerators are a type of novel accelerator that has the potential to achieve very high accelerating gradients relative to conventional accelerators. This can lead to the build of more compact and affordable accelerators.

An important part of the experiment is preserving the witness electron beam quality as it's accelerated. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to measure the beam characteristics such as the emittance and bunch length of the witness beam.

One method in measuring the beam emittance is from betatron radiation emitted from the transverse oscillations of electrons. For measuring the bunch length we can use Cherenkov Diffraction Radiation (ChDR) emitted from charged particles passing by, in close vicinity, a medium faster than the phase velocity of light within the medium.

The aim of the project is to contribute towards the design and build of betatron radiation as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to measure the witness beam emittance. Also, to continue and support the work on ChDR as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for bunch length, already designed and implemented into AWAKE by Dr. Can Davut.

The project includes some time at CERN for at least 1-year and up to 2.5-years.