Design studies and commissioning plans for plasma acceleration research station experimental program

Plasma acceleration research station is an electron beam driven plasma wakefield acceleration test stand proposed for CLARA facility in Daresbury Laboratory. In this paper, the interaction between the electron beam and the plasma is numerically characterised via 2D numerical studies by using VSIM code. The wakefields induced by a single bunch travelling through the plasma were found to vary from 200 MV/m to 3 GV/m for a range of bunch length, bunch radius, and plasma densities. Energy gain for the particles populating the bunch tail through the wakefields driven by the head of the bunch was demonstrated. After determining the achievable field for various beams and plasma configurations, a reference setting was determined for further studies. Considering this reference setting, the beam quality studies were performed for a two-bunch acceleration case. The maximum energy gain as well as the energy spread mitigation by benefiting from the beam loading was investigated by positioning the witness and driver bunches with respect to each other. Emittance growth mechanisms were studied considering the beam-plasma and beam-wakefield interactions. Eventually, regarding the findings, the initial commissioning plans and the aims for the later stages were summarised