Plasma wakefield acceleration is nowadays very attractive in terms of accelerating gradient, able to overcome conventional accelerators by orders of magnitude. However, this poses very demanding requirements on the accelerator stability to avoid large instabilities on the final beam energy. In this study we analyze the correlation between the driver-witness distance jitter (due to the RF timing jitter) and the witness energy gain in a plasma wakefield accelerator stage. Experimental measurements are reported by using an electro-optical sampling diagnostics with which we correlate the distance between the driver and witness beams prior to the plasma accelerator stage. The results show a clear correlation due to such a distance jitter highlighting the contribution coming from the RF compression.

The spontaneous emission of radiation from relativistic electrons within a plasma channel is called betatron radiation and has great potential to become a compact x-ray source in the future. We present an analysis of the performance of a broad secondary radiation source based on a high-gradient laser-plasma wakefield electron accelerator. The purpose of this study is to assess the possibility of having a new source for a non-destructive X-ray phase contrast imaging and tomography of heterogeneous materials. We report studies of compact and UV-soft X ray generation via betatron oscillations in plasma channel and in particular measurement of the radiation spectrum emitted from electron beam is analyzed from a grazing incident monochromator at Centro de Laseres Pulsados Ultraintensos (CLPU).

Plasma wakefield acceleration is nowadays very attractive in terms of accelerating gradient, able to overcome conventional accelerators by orders of magnitude. However, this poses very demanding requirements on the accelerator stability to avoid large instabilities on the final beam energy. In this study we analyze the correlation between the driver-witness distance jitter (due to the RF timing jitter) and the witness energy gain in a plasma wakefield accelerator stage. Experimental measurements are reported by using an electro-optical sampling diagnostics with which we correlate the distance between the driver and witness beams prior to the plasma accelerator stage. The results show a clear correlation due to such a distance jitter highlighting the contribution coming from the RF compression.

The spontaneous emission of radiation from relativistic electrons within a plasma channel is called betatron radiation and has great potential to become a compact x-ray source in the future. We present an analysis of the performance of a broad secondary radiation source based on a high-gradient laser-plasma wakefield electron accelerator. The purpose of this study is to assess the possibility of having a new source for a non-destructive X-ray phase contrast imaging and tomography of heterogeneous materials. We report studies of compact and UV-soft X ray generation via betatron oscillations in plasma channel and in particular measurement of the radiation spectrum emitted from electron beam is analyzed from a grazing incident monochromator at Centro de Laseres Pulsados Ultraintensos (CLPU).

We report on initial characterization of NaKSb photocathodes in the Pegasus high gradient S-band RF photoinjector. These cathodes were grown at Cornell and transported by air to UCLA. Preliminary characterization was done in the UV and yielded a quantum efficiency of 1.5% and a mean transverse energy of 0.7±0.2 eV measured by solenoid scan. Photocathode response at different wavelengths as well as measurements of other important parameters such as cathode life-time, dark current levels and the time response are being planned.