Plasma Wakefield Acceleration - An introduction to laser- and beam-driven concepts

Plasmas enable the creation of electric fields in excess of 10 GV/m for the purpose of charged particle acceleration, outperforming traditional radiofrequency-based technology by many orders of magnitude. These fields are generated in electron-density waves in plasma, driven by either a high-intensity laser pulse or a high current-density particle beam, supporting GeV-energy gain over cm distances. Such plasma wakefield accelerators raise hope for a dramatic miniaturization of cutting-edge applications in photon science and high-energy physics, potentially with disruptive consequences for either field.This pair of lectures will introduce the basic principles of plasma wake accelerators, discuss limits in achievable energy gain, present electron injection techniques and touch on recent research results for both, laser- and beam-driven techniques. In addition, by investigating the example of a plasma-based high-energy physics collider, concepts and challenges toward the construction of this most demanding of applications will be discussed