Compact electron accelerators based on lasers and plasmas: Towards a 10 GeV machine

Accelerators are essential tools of discovery and have many practical uses. At the forefront of accelerator technology are the machines that deliver beams for particle physics, for synchrotron and free electron based radiation sources. The technology that drives these accelerators is extremely sophisticated but is limited by the maximum sustainable accelerating field. This impacts the size and cost of the device. More than three decades ago, lasers were proposed as power source for driving novel accelerators based on plasmas as the accelerating medium. An overview will be presented of the basic principles of laser plasma accelerators (LPA) and of the research at LBNL. This includes the 2004 demonstration of high quality electron beams, the 2006 demonstration of GeV class beams from a 3 cm long accelerating structure, recent work on controlled injection, staging of modules and the BELLA project which aims at a 10 GeV meter scale accelerator. We then discuss the challenges of this technology towards applicability for advanced light sources and colliders.