This report describes the conceptual steps in reaching the design of the AWAKE experiment currently under construction at CERN. We start with an introduction to plasma wakefield acceleration and the motivation for using proton drivers. We then describe the self-modulation instability -a key to an early realization of the concept. This is then followed by the historical development of the experimental design, where the critical issues that arose and their solutions are described. We conclude with the design of the experiment as it is being realized at CERN and some words on the future outlook. A summary of the AWAKE design and construction status as presented in this conference is given in [1].

The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) aims at studying plasma wakefield generation and electron acceleration driven by proton bunches. It is a proof-of-principle R&D experiment at CERN and the world's first proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment. The AWAKE experiment will be installed in the former CNGS facility and uses the 400 GeV/c proton beam bunches from the SPS. The first experiments will focus on the self-modulation instability of the long (rms ∼ 12 cm) proton bunch in the plasma. These experiments are planned for the end of 2016. Later, in 2017/2018, low energy (∼ 15 MeV) electrons will be externally injected to sample the wakefields and be accelerated beyond 1 GeV. The main goals of the experiment will be summarized. A summary of the AWAKE design and construction status will be presented.

This paper investigates numerically dual-grating dielectric laser-driven accelerators driven by a pulse-front-tilted (PFT) laser, which extends the interaction length and boosts the electrons' energy gain. The optical system necessary to generate PFT laser beams with an ultrashort pulse duration of 100 fs is also studied in detail. Through two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we show that such a PFT laser effectively increases the energy gain by (91±25) % compared to that of a normally incident laser with a waist radius of 50 μm for a 100-period dual-grating structure.

The acceleration of a beam of electrons has been observed in a dielectric laser-driven accelerator (DLA) with a gradient of 300 MV/m. It opens the way to building a particle accelerator "on a chip" much more cheaply than a conventional one. This paper investigates numerically an efficient dielectric laser-driven accelerating structure, based on dual-gratings with a Bragg reflector. The design of the structure boosts the accelerating field in the channel, thereby increasing the accelerating gradient by more than 70% compared to bare dual-gratings, from analytical calculations. This is supported by two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell simulations, where a 50 MeV electron bunch is loaded into an optimized 100-period structure to interact with a 100 fs pulsed laser having a peak field of 2 GV/m. It demonstrates a loaded accelerating gradient of 1.48 ± 0.10 GV/m, which is (85 ± 26)% higher than that of bare dual-gratings. In addition, studies of the diffraction effect show that the optimized structure should be fabricated with a vertical size of J/ ≥ 0.20 in order to generate an acceptable accelerating performance.