Edda Gschwendtner, CERN AWAKE Project Leader, explains the concept of Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration at TEDxCERN. A version of the talk with French subtitles is available here.  

AWAKE achieves first ever acceleration of electrons in a proton-driven plasma wave

AWAKE is the world's first proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment. It explores the use of plasma to accelerate particles to high energies over short distances.

AWAKE uses a laser, a bunched proton beam and a plasma cell to accelerate bunches of electrons. Dipole and quadrupole magnets along the beam lines guide long proton bunches and short electron bunches towards the plasma cell. To observe accelerated electrons and measure many different beam parameters, the AWAKE beamline is equipped with a vast array of screens and imaging stations. The AWAKE line ends with a scinitillating screen that shows the accelerated electrons as light spots on the right hand side of the screen.

 

Layout of the AWAKE experiment

 

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