Measurements of the longitudinal wakefields in a multimode, dielectric wakefield accelerator driven by a train of electron bunches

Abstract

We report on the experimental demonstration of a novel wakefield acceleration technique where a short electron bunch excites a broadband harmonic frequency spectrum, in a cylindrical dielectric structure, to synthesize an accelerating waveform. The structure is designed to have its TM_{0n} modes nearly equally spaced so that the modes generated by a single short electron bunch constructively interfere in the neighborhood of integral multiples of the fundamental wavelength producing large acceleration gradients. Realization of a harmonic multimode structure requires more stringent design considerations than a single-mode structure, since the permittivity and loss tangent of the material should not change substantially over the bandwidth of the structure. In this experiment, a bunch train of four 5 nC electron bunches, separated by 760 ps (one net wavelength), were passed through a 60 cm long dielectric-lined cylindrical harmonic structure. Use of a train of drive bunches spaced by one wavelength reinforced the accelerating wakefield; observation of the energy loss of each bunch via a magnetic spectrometer served as a diagnostic of the wakefield. The measured energy spectrum of the four beams after passing through the waveguide was found to be in excellent agreement with the predictions of the analytic model. This result demonstrates that a dielectric can be fabricated which can synthesize the required wakefield. We also discuss potential advantages of this harmonic approach over conventional single-mode wakefield accelerators.