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In 2017, AWAKE demonstrated the seeded self-modulation (SSM) of a 400 GeV proton beam from the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN. The angular distribution of the protons deflected due to SSM is a quantitative measure of the process, which agrees with simulations by the two-dimensional (axisymmetric) particle-in-cell code LCODE to about 5%. The agreement is achieved in beam population scans at two selected plasma densities and in the scan of longitudinal plasma density gradient. The agreement is reached only in the case of a wide enough simulation box (several plasma wavelengths) that is closer to experimental conditions, but requires more computational power. Therefore, particle-in-cell codes can be used to interpret the SSM physics underlying the experimental data.

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In this work, the effects of femtosecond laser irradiation and doping with plasmonic gold nanorods on the degree of conversion (DC) of a urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA)–triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) nanocomposite were investigated. The UDMA-TEGDMA photopolymer was prepared in a 3:1 weight ratio and doped with dodecanethiol- (DDT) capped gold nanorods of 25 × 75 or 25 × 85 nm nominal diameter and length. It was found that the presence of the gold nanorods alone (without direct plasmonic excitation) can increase the DC of the photopolymer by 6–15%. This increase was found to be similar to what could be achieved with a control heat treatment of 30 min at 180 °C. It was also shown that femtosecond laser impulses (795 nm, 5 mJ pulse energy, 50 fs pulse length, 2.83 Jcm−2 fluence), applied after the photopolymerization under a standard dental curing lamp, can cause a 2–7% increase in the DC of undoped samples, even after thermal pre-treatment. The best DC values (12–15% increase) were obtained with combined nanorod doping and subsequent laser irradiation close to the plasmon resonance peak of the nanorods (760–800 nm), which proves that the excited plasmon field can directly facilitate double bond breakage (without thermoplasmonic effects due to the short pulse length) and increase the crosslink density independently from the initial photopolymerization process.

Plasma wakefield acceleration is a promising technology to reduce the size of particle accelerators. The use of high energy protons to drive wakefields in plasma has been demonstrated during Run 1 of the AWAKE programme at CERN. Protons of energy 400 GeV drove wakefields that accelerated electrons to 2 GeV in under 10 m of plasma. The AWAKE collaboration is now embarking on Run 2 with the main aims to demonstrate stable accelerating gradients of 0.5–1 GV/m, preserve emittance of the electron bunches during acceleration and develop plasma sources scalable to 100s of metres and beyond. By the end of Run 2, the AWAKE scheme should be able to provide electron beams for particle physics experiments and several possible experiments have already been evaluated. This article summarises the programme of AWAKE Run 2 and how it will be achieved as well as the possible application of the AWAKE scheme to novel particle physics experiments.