A 10 GeV laser driven accelerator: the BELLA project

GeV class beams have been generated from a laser driven accelerator \footnote{W.P. Leemans et al., Nature Physics \textbf{2}, 696-699 (2006); K. Nakamura et al., Phys. Plasmas \textbf{14}, 056708 (2007)}. The experiments used a cm-scale capillary discharge produced plasma channel to guide and control the process of acceleration, similar to the use of laser produced channels \footnote{C.G.R. Geddes et al., Nature \textbf{431}, 538-541 (2004)}, and 40 TW laser pulses. Lower plasma density and cm-scale channel length resulted in up to 1 GeV beams, in good agreement with simulations. This forms the basis for the next milestone experiment: a 10 GeV laser driven accelerator. As part of the BELLA project at LBNL, scaling of these experiments to the 10 GeV level is now underway. We will discuss experimental plans for the implementation of a 1 m scale channel guided laser wakefield accelerator and a petawatt class laser system.