RECENT RESULTS AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES OF THE SPARC PROJECT

The SPARC project foresees the realization of a high brightness photo-injector to produce a 150-200 MeV electron beam to drive 500 nm FEL experiments in various configurations, a Thomson backscattering source and a plasma accelerator experiment (these last two ones jointly with the project PLASMONX). The SPARC photoinjector is also the test facility for the recently approved VUV FEL project named SPARX. As a first stage of the commissioning, a complete characterization of the photoinjector has been accomplished with a detailed study of the emittance compensation process downstream the gun-solenoid system: this lead to the first direct experimental demonstration of emittance oscillations in a drift. The second stage of th