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Collider-quality electron bunches from an all-optical plasma photoinjector

Arohi Jain1,*, Jiayang Yan1, Jacob R. Pierce2, Tanner T. Simpson3, Mikhail Polyanskiy4, William Li4, Marcus Babzien4, Mark Palmer4, Michael Downer5 et al.

Roman Samulyak1, Chan Joshi2, Warren B. Mori2, John P. Palastro3, and Navid Vafaei-Najafabadi1,†

  • *Contact author: arohi.jain@stonybrook.edu
  • †Contact author: navid.vafaei-najafabadi@stonybrook.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023213 – Published 27 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q36y-6jqn

Abstract

We present an approach for generating collider-quality electron bunches using a plasma photoinjector. The approach leverages recently developed techniques for the spatiotemporal control of laser pulses to produce a moving ionization front in a nonlinear plasma wave. The moving ionization front generates an electron bunch with a current profile that balances the longitudinal electric field of an electron beam-driven plasma wave, creating a uniform accelerating field across the bunch. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of the ionization stage show the formation of an electron bunch with 220 pC charge and low emittance (ɛx=171 nm rad, ɛy=76 nm rad). Quasistatic PIC simulations of the acceleration stage show that the bunch is efficiently accelerated to 24 GeV over 2 m with a final energy spread of less than 1% and emittances of ɛx=189 nm rad and ɛy=80 nm rad. This high-quality electron bunch meets the requirements outlined by the Snowmass process for intermediate-energy colliders and compares favorably to the beam quality of proposed and existing accelerator facilities. The results establish the feasibility of plasma photoinjectors for future collider applications making a significant step toward the realization of high-luminosity, compact accelerators for particle physics research.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023213– Published 27 May, 2026
  • Received 22 July 2025
  • Accepted 8 April 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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