CERN Accelerating science

The Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) at CERN foresees the simultaneous operation of a proton, a laser and an electron beam. The first stage of the experiment will consist in proving the self-modulation, in the plasma, of a long proton bunch into micro-bunches. The success of this experiment requires an almost perfect concentricity of the proton and laser beam, over the full length of the plasma cell. The complexity of integrating the laser into the proton beam line and fulfilling the strict requirements in terms of pointing precision of the proton beam at the plasma cell are described. The second stage of the experiment foresees also the injection of electron bunches to probe the accelerating wakefields driven by the proton beam. Studies were performed to evaluate the possibility of injecting the electron beam parallel and with an offset to the beam axis. This option would imply that protons and electrons will have to share the last few meters of a common beam line. Issues and possible solutions for this case are presented.