MPA
MPA

| Plasma Accelerators

MPA

Plasma Accelerators

Plasma Accelerators

Plasma Accelerators



Plasmas miniaturize particle accelerators

Andreas

Maier

Group Leader

andreas.maier@desy.de

Daniela

Koch

Assistant

d.koch@desy.de

Plasmas are on the verge of triggering a revolution in accelerator technology. Owing to their support of field strengths in the GV/m-regime, they enable very compact accelerator designs for future applications in multiple areas of high societal impact including particle physics, photon science, industry, and health. This miniaturization process will entail a paradigm shift in the use of particle accelerators, drastically increase their availability, and, in some cases, allow to bring the accelerator to the problem at hand. DESY intends to mature plasma accelerator concepts and deploy them in its core areas of expertise in particle physics and photon science, and is developing the technology portfolio for medical and industrial use cases.

Key applications in fundamental research

In photon science compact free-electron lasers, power-efficient storage ring injectors, and new pump-probe modalities at user end-stations of large-scale and compact photon sources will emerge. In particle physics, in the medium term, these developments will allow to power highly nonlinear QED studies and fixed target experiments to explore the dark sector with increased intensity and in a greatly reduced footprint. The aggregated R&D will pave the way for more challenging long-term applications in an energy-frontier particle collider.

The MPA team is researching, developing, and implementing the required key technologies to accomplish these goals and bridge the gap between fundamental plasma accelerator science and applicable plasma-based accelerators.