Ionization front accelerator: High gradients, demonstrated particle acceleration, and a proposed relativistic accelerator

The Ionization Front Accelerator (IFA) is a collective ion accelerator for which high‐gradient particle acceleration has now been domenstrated. In the IFA, the space charge field at the front of an intense relativistic electron beam is controlled by a laser and used to accelerate an ion bunch. Two complete IFA systems have been built (IFA−1 and IFA−2). Here we present initial IFA−2 ion results that demonstrate that ions have been accelerated with controlled accelerating fields of 33 MV/m over 30 cm.Space charge fields of accelerators like the IFA and the plasma beat wave accelerator are compared, and both are shown to be capable of producing fields 1 GV/m and higher. The IFA systems are discussed and initial IFA‐2 ion results are presented. Lastly, a relativistic IFA is proposed that should, in principle, permit the attainment of virtually unlimited ion energies.