Engineered Drop-in Systems for Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiments

Demonstration of advanced acceleration experiments based on plasma wakefields, or novel structures, is necessary to develop next generation accelerators for compact colliders and light sources. The limited access to user facilities impairs the efficient conducting of high energy physics experiments. There is a need to substantially increase throughput to get critical data in a reasonable time and accommodate the many creative and impactful experiments proposed for the user facilities. To address these challenges, RadiaBeam had proposed to maximize experimental capacity of high-energy physics user facilities, by removing the hinderances of experiment-specific vacuum chamber design and engineering, defraying undue cost to experiments, and establishing a smooth workflow to streamline experiment execution. The drop-in experimental chamber is designed to be modular, quickly replaceable, and accommodating to complex setups. The need for this type of chamber is particularly evident for plasma wakefield acceleration concepts, which simultaneously require the injection of gas, high energy lasers, various diagnostics, and sample manipulation in real-time. In Phase I and Phase II we laid out the design for a modular chamber with removable walls that can be reconfigurable for various experimental needs. The design was based on the “Picnic Basket” which RadiaBeam had produced for SLAC FACET. Many successful experiments were staged in the Picnic Basket, which is still used to present day. Modifications were requested to increase the capacity and utility of the chamber and served as the motivation for the Phase II work. The main novelties included a pneumatic assist lidding, and development of vacuum motion controls coupled through external motorization for ultra-high vacuum applications. The Phase II-B work will focus on enhancing the modular chamber design to extend the capabilities to other needs. First, a particulate free, in-vacuum motion control system will be developed based on the Phase II design. This module will be directly compatible with the chamber designed after the Picnic Basket and be able to operate in UHV levels of E-9 Torr. Second, a module for plasma profile observation diagnostics will be machined and tested to allow for plasma column profile evolution measurements and real-time diagnostics. The two add-ons will be tested on the bench after manufacture and installed at the SLAC FACET-II facility for further validation. The development of the drop-in chamber will facilitate such advanced acceleration concepts described above, but is also readily extendable to other types of beambased and laser-based experimental needs. The chambers can have application in fields ranging from semiconductor fabrication, isotope production, to material studies.