Beam Transport and Manipulation of Wakefield-Accelerated Electrons

The bunch parameters exiting a wakefield accelerator of various kinds are not as good as required to be drive beams for applications such as free-electron lasers. The energy spread and divergences of the generated bunches are typically far too high to be of any practical use. Therefore, the proposal in this project is to understand this problem in greater depth and to look at various possible remedies. The student will study various schemes of beam transport following wakefield acceleration. For example, it may be possible to create a transverse focusing non-scaling FFAG channel in which electron bunches are adiabatically damped to create a beam with a smaller divergence at the transport exit, perhaps increasing the damping by other methods. Or, it may be possible use a damping ring. Another idea is to use some form of emittance exchange scheme. The combination of these methods with collimation will also be considered. The student will need to model the various ideas for ameliorating the various bunch exit parameters in MAD-8/MAD-X as well as other possible tracking codes like for example ASTRA, GEANT-4 etc. The student will also be required to present the results at conferences and workshops as well as write and publish scientific papers and conference proceedings.

Qualifications applicants should have/expect to receive: The successful candidate will spend most of his/her time at the Cockcroft Institute near Warrington, working with STFC Daresbury Laboratory researchers. The successful candidate will have or expect to obtain a first or upper second-class degree or equivalent (e.g. MPhys, MSci) in physics. Experience of accelerator physics and computational physics is desirable but not essential.

Contact for further information: [Email Address Removed], or visit Room 7.08, Schuster Building on the University of Manchester main campus. This position will remain open until filled.