Optical Frequency Domain Visualization Of Electron Beam Driven Plasma Wakefields

Bunch driven plasma wakefield accelerators (PWFA), such as the >plasma afterburner,> are a promising emerging method for significantly increasing the energy output of conventional particle accelerators [1]. The study and optimization of this method would benefit from an experimental correlation of the drive bunch parameters and the accelerated particle parameters with the corresponding plasma wave structure. However, the plasma wave structure has not been observed directly so far. We will report ongoing development of a noninvasive optical Frequency Domain Interferometric (FDI) [2] and Holographic (FDH) [3] diagnostics of bunch driven plasma wakes. Both FDI and FDH have been previously demonstrated in the case of laser driven wakes. These techniques employ two laser pulses co-propagating with the drive particle bunch and the trailing plasma wave. One pulse propagates ahead of the drive bunch and serves as a reference, while the second is overlapped with the plasma wave and probes its structure. The multi-shot FDI and single-shot FDH diagnostics permit direct noninvasive observation of longitudinal and transverse structure of the plasma wakes. The experiment is being developed at the 70MeV Linac in the Accelerator Test Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory to visualize wakes generated by two [4] and multi-bunch [5] drive beams.