A Beam Position Monitor for Electron Bunch Detection in the Presence of a More Intense Proton Bunch for the AWAKE Experiment

The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Experiment (AWAKE) at CERN uses 6 cm long proton bunches extracted from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at 400 GeV beam energy to drive high gradient plasma wakefields for the acceleration of electron bunches to 2 GeV within a 10 m length. Knowledge and control of the position of both copropagating beams is crucial for the operation of the experiment. Whilst the current electron beam position monitoring system at AWAKE can be used in the absence of the proton beam, the proton bunch signal dominates when both particle bunches are present simultaneously. A new technique based on the generation of Cherenkov diffraction radiation (ChDR) in a dielectric material placed in close proximity to the particle beam has been designed to exploit the large bunch length difference of the particle beams at AWAKE, 200 ps for protons versus a few ps for electrons, such that the electron signal dominates. Hence, this technique would allow for the position measurement of a short electron bunch in the presence of a more intense but longer proton bunch. The design considerations, numerical analysis and plans for tests at the CERN Linear Electron Accelerator for Research (CLEAR) facility are presented.