Beam Matching to a Plasma Wakefield Accelerator Using a Ramped Density Profile at the Plasma Boundary

An important aspect of plasma wake field accelerators (PWFA) is stable propagation of the drive beam. In the under dense plasma regime, the drive beam creates an ion channel which acts on the beam as a strong thick focusing lens. The ion channel causes the beam to undergo multiple betatron oscillations along the length of the plasma. There are several advantages if the beam size can be matched to a constant radius. First, simulations have shown that instabilities such as hosing are reduced when the beam is matched [1]. Second, synchrotron radiation losses are minimized when the beam is matched. Third, an initially matched beam will propagate with no significant change in beam size in spite of large energy loss or gain. Coupling to the plasma with a matched radius can be difficult in some cases. This paper shows how an appropriate density ramp at the plasma entrance can be useful for achieving a matched beam. Additionally, the density ramp is helpful in bringing a misaligned trailing beam onto the drive beam axis. A plasma source with boundary profiles useful for matching has been created for the E-164X PWFA experiments at SLAC