CERN Accelerating science

The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) at CERN aims to develop a proof-of-principle electron accelerator based on proton driven plasma wake-field acceleration. The core of AWAKE is a 10 metre long plasma cell filled with Rubidium vapour in which single, 400 GeV, proton bunches extracted from the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) generate a strong plasma wakefield. The plasma is seeded using a femtosecond pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser. The aim of the experiment is to inject low energy electrons onto the plasma wake and accelerate them over this short distance to an energy of several GeV. To achieve its commissioning goals, AWAKE requires the precise measurement of the position and transverse profile of the laser, proton and electron beams as well as their temporal synchronisation. This contribution will present the beam instrumentation systems designed for AWAKE and their performance during the 2016 proton beam commissioning period.