Plasma wakefields in the quasi-nonlinear regime: Experiments at ATF

In this work we present details of planned experiments to investigate certain aspects of the quasi non linear regime (QNL) of plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA). In the QNL regime it is, in principal, possible to combine the benefits of both nonlinear and linear PWFA. That is, beams of high quality can be maintained through acceleration due to the complete ejection of plasma electrons from beam occupied region, while large energy gains can be achieved through use of transformer ratio increasing schemes, such as ramped bunch trains. With the addition of an short focal length PMQ triplet capable of focusing beams to the few micron scale and the ability to generate tunable bunch trains, the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at Brookhaven National Lab offers the unique capabilities to probe these characteristics of the QNL regime.