A collider based on beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration will require the drive beam to transfer 10-100s of Joules to the plasma in each stage, with a drive-to-wake energy transfer efficiency exceeding 70%. Using an all-optical plasma source, we demonstrate significant progress towards these parameters, transferring at least 5.6 J from a 1.52 nC, 10 GeV electron beam to a 4.5×1016cm−3 hydrogen plasma while achieving at least 37±3% drive-to-wake energy transfer efficiency. We observe deceleration of some particles to less than 0.93 GeV with up to 90% of the charge participating in the interaction.
@article{arxiv.2511.15143,
title = {Drive beam depletion with multi-Joule energy transfer in a plasma wakefield accelerator},
author = {R. Ariniello and V. Lee and D. Storey and C. Emma and S. Gessner and M. J. Hogan and A. Knetsch and M. D. Litos and N. Majernik and B. O'Shea},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.15143},
year = {2025}
}