Results from Plasma Wakefield Experiments at FACET

We report initial results of the Plasma Wakefield Acceleration (PWFA) Experiments performed at FACET - Facility for Advanced aCcelertor Experimental Tests at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. At FACET a 23 GeV electron beam with 1.8 x 10{sup 10} electrons is compressed to 20 {mu}m longitudinally and focused down to 10 {mu}m x 10 {mu}m transverse spot size for user driven experiments. Construction of the FACET facility completed in May 2011 with a first run of user assisted commissioning throughout the summer. The first PWFA experiments will use single electron bunches combined with a high density lithium plasma to produce accelerating gradients > 10 GeV/m benchmarking the FACET beam and the newly installed experimental hardware. Future plans for further study of plasma wakefield acceleration will be reviewed. The experimental hardware and operation of the plasma heat-pipe oven have been successfully commissioned. Plasma wakefield acceleration was not observed because the electron bunch density was insufficient to ionize the lithium vapor. The remaining commissioning time in summer 2011 will be dedicated to delivering the FACET design parameters for the experimental programs which will begin in early 2012. PWFA experiments require the shorter bunches and smaller transverse sizes to create the plasma and drive large amplitude wakefields. Low emittance and high energy will minimize head erosion which was found to be a limiting factor in acceleration distance and energy gain. We will run the PWFA experiments with the design single bunch conditions in early 2012. Future PWFA experiments at FACET are discussed in [5][6] and include drive and witness bunch production for high energy beam manipulation, ramped bunch to optimize tranformer ratio, field-ionized cesium plasma, preionized plasmas, positron acceleration, etc.. We will install a notch collimator for two-bunch operation as well as new beam diagnostics such as the X-band TCAV [7] to resolve the two bunches. With these new instruments and desired beam parameters in place next year, we will be able to complete the studies of plasma wakefield acceleration in the next few years.