Hybrid LWFA-PWFA staging as a beam energy and brightness transformer: Conceptual design and simulations

Abstract

We present a conceptual design for a hybrid laserdriven plasma wakefield accelerator (LWFA) to beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA). In this set-up, the output beams from an LWFA stage are used as input beams of a new PWFA stage. In the PWFA stage, a new witness beam of largely increased quality can be produced and accelerated to higher energies. The feasibility and the potential of this concept is shown through exemplary particle-in-cell simulations. In addition, preliminary simulation results for a proof-of-concept experiment in Helmholtz- Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany) are shown.