Observation of enhanced transformer ratio in collinear wakefield acceleration.

One approach to future high energy particle accelerators is based on the wakefield principle: a leading high-charge drive bunch is used to excite fields in an accelerating structure or plasma that in turn accelerates a trailing low-charge witness bunch. The transformer ratio R is defined as the ratio of the maximum energy gain of the witness bunch to the maximum energy loss of the drive bunch. In general, R<2 for this configuration. A number of techniques have been proposed to overcome the transformer ratio limitation. We report here the first experimental study of the ramped bunch train (RBT) technique in a dielectric based accelerating structure. A single drive bunch was replaced by two bunches with charge ratio of 1:2.5 and a separation of 10.5 wavelengths of the fundamental mode. An average measured transformer ratio enhancement by a factor of 1.31 over the single drive bunch case was obtained.