Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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AKBP: Arbeitskreis Beschleunigerphysik
AKBP 12: Novel Accelerators I
AKBP 12.2: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 12. März 2026, 10:00–10:15, SCH/A117
Simulations of a Plasma Booster for the European XFEL — •Anna Krivkova1, Tianyun Long1, Alexander Sinn1, Maxence Thevenet1, Stephan Wesch1, Matthew Wing1, 2, and Jonathan Wood1 — 1Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, 22607 Hamburg, Germany — 2University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
Proposed upgrades of the European XFEL include continuous-wave operation, which requires lowering maximum beam energy from 17.5 GeV to about 8 GeV to facilitate a large increase in repetition rate. A beam-driven plasma accelerator offers a compact and efficient solution to compensate for this energy loss. By integrating a plasma booster into an existing beamline, the European XFEL could restore its nominal beam energy and potentially exceed the current 17.5 GeV limit. To evaluate the feasibility and performance of such a booster, we perform particle-in-cell simulations in HiPACE++ using several gas species over a range of plasma densities. The accelerating gradients consistently reach the multi-GV/m regime, with realistic peak values of about 8 GV/m. The simulations further show that the 5 kA, high-brightness XFEL bunches present challenges for plasma wakefield acceleration due to strong ion motion and beam-induced ionization, increasing the emittance and energy spread of the accelerated witness bunch. Mitigation strategies, including optimization of the initial driver and witness emittance, will be presented.
Keywords: Plasma wakefield acceleration; Beam-driven plasma accelerator; Particle-in-cell simulation; European XFEL