CLIC R&D: Technology, Test Facilities and Future Plans

A high luminosity (10/sup 34/ - 10/sup 34/ cm/sup 2/ /s) electron- positron collider (Compact LInear Collider - CLIC) with a nominal centre-of-mass energy of 3 TeV has been under study for a number of years in the framework of an international collaboration of laboratories and institutes, with the aim to provide the HEP community with a new facility for the post-LHC era. After a brief description of a CLIC scheme to extend Linear Colliders into the Multi-TeV colliding beam energy range, the main challenges and the very promising results already achieved are discussed. The rest of the paper will mainly focus on the new Test Facility (CTF3) presently under construction at CERN in order to address the main key issues and demonstrate the feasibility of the CLIC technology before 2010.