Simulation studies of plasma lens experiments at Daresbury laboratory

Experiments are planned to study plasma lensing using the VELA and CLARA Front End accelerators at Daresbury Laboratory. This paper presents results of 2-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of the proposed experiments. The variation in focusing strength and emittance growth with beam and plasma parameters are studied in the overdense (plasma density much greater than bunch density) regime for the VELA beam. The effect of spherical and longitudinal aberrations on the beam emittance was estimated through numerical and theoretical studies. Simulation results show that a focusing strength equivalent to a magnetic field gradient of 10 T m⁻¹ can be achieved using VELA, and a gradient of 247 T m⁻¹ can be achieved using CLARA Front End. (paper)