UCLA Neptune Facility for Advanced Accelerator Studies

Abstract

The Neptune Laboratory at UCLA is being used for exploring concepts useful for advanced accelerators. This facility hosts a TW-class CO 2 laser system and a high-brightness photoinjector producing a 14 MeV electron beam. The goal for the laboratory is to carry out experiments on high-gradient acceleration of externally injected electrons in both laser-driven relativistic plasma waves and EM laser field in vacuum. Experiments on plasma beat-wave acceleration using a prebunched electron beam, a high-energy gain 10-µm inverse free electron laser accelerator, longitudinal electron beam shaping and laser based light-sources are planned.