New plasma source for AWAKE in Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS)

AWAKE is an accelerator R&D project at CERN using a new technology to accelerate particles known as plasma wakefield acceleration. This is the new plasma source for AWAKE for the second phase of AWAKE Run 2. AWAKE’s new rubidium vapour plasma source is 10 metres long, similar to that used in previous runs, but this time it introduces a density step that allows stronger wakefields to be obtained. This new plasma source is split into segments whose temperature can be controlled independently along the entire length of the source.