The power of plasma: Extending the energy frontier and democratizing X-ray lasers

Plasma-based particle accelerators have transitioned from dream to reality over the past four decades and have approached within striking distance of application readiness. Bunches of tens-of-millions of electrons are now regularly accelerated from rest to nearly 10 GeV of energy-per-particle in the distance of mere centimeters. With such accelerating gradients, it should be possible to extend the reach of particle colliders operating at the energy frontier, as well as reduce the size and cost of ultra-high-brightness X-ray laser sources, making them more accessible to researchers throughout the world. One of the next major challenges is the preservation of beam quality during the acceleration process to meet the physics-driven demands of major target applications. In this talk, I will describe research efforts being led by the University of Colorado Boulder to address this and other challenges at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's FACET-II advanced accelerator research facility.