PROBING TOWARD THE SOLID STATE PLASMA ACCELERATOR FRONTIER USING CHANNELING RADIATION MEASUREMENTS AT THE FERMILAB A0 PHOTOINJECTOR

摘要

Plasmas offer the possibility of high acceleration gradients. An intriguing suggestion is to use the higher plasma densities possible in solids to get extremely high gradients. Although solid state plasmas might produce high gradients they would pose daunting problems. Crystal channeling has been suggested as one mechanism to address these challenges. There is no experimental or theoretical guidance on channeling in intense electron and laser beams. A high density plasma in a crystal lattice could quench the channeling process. An experiment is being carried out at the Fermilab A0 Photo-Injector Test Facility to observe electron channeling radiation at high bunch charges. An electron beam with up to 8 nC per electron bunch has been used to investigate the electron-crystal interaction. No evidence has been found of significant quenching of channeling at charge densities several orders of magnitude larger than in earlier experiments.