Progress Toward an Experiment at AWAKE

The AWAKE experimental program is scheduled to start at the end of 2016. The aim of the first experiments is to detect and study the self-modulation instability (SMI) of the long proton bunch ~12cm in a plasma with wakefields of period of ~1.2mm. The occurrence of SMI results in the formation of a charge core surrounded by a halo in the time-integrated images of the proton bunch transverse profile. Transverse profiles are obtained from scintillator screens and from optical transition radiation (OTR). The OTR is time resolved using a ps-resolution streak camera to determine the start of the wakefields along the bunch on a slow time scale (~ns), i.e., the location of the seeding of the SMI generated by the ionizing laser pulse. The modulation period is measured using the faster time scale (~ps). Coherent transition radiation (CTR) is analyzed by a heterodyne system to also yield the modulation frequency. Later experiments will sample the wakefields generated by externally injecting low-energy (~15MeV) electrons expected to be accelerated to the GeV energy level over the 10m-long plasma. Progress toward the completion of the experimental set-up will be presented.