Dr. Chaojie Zhang, University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract:
Plasma accelerators can sustain accelerating fields far beyond conventional technology, offering a promising path toward future colliders and next-generation light sources. I will present our recent experimental demonstration of a plasma-wakefield "dual transformer" that simultaneously doubled beam energy (up to 26 GeV) and increased brightness more than tenfold over the state-of-the-art drive beam — a result that advances two accelerator physics frontiers. On the energy frontier, I will discuss how plasma accelerators, equipped with a novel staging concept, could enable TeV-scale electron acceleration in a compact setup. On the brightness frontier, the dual transformer concept directly addresses the beam quality required for next-generation light sources, unlocking new possibilities for coherent sources from EUV to hard X-rays and beyond. I will also discuss the application of machine learning to beam diagnostics, the critical role it could play in accelerator research, and new opportunities in spin-polarized beam physics.