EPACE

𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗵𝗗 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆!

Doctoral Network EPACE Focusing on Compact Accelerators and Innovation

With 32 academic and industrial partners, the collaboration receives 4 million euros of funding from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions to support 15 PhD projects and act as an accelerator for the European innovation ecosystem.

The EPACE (European compact accelerators, their applications, and entrepreneurship) doctoral network has received funding from the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the EU’s flagship funding program for doctoral education and postdoctoral training of researchers. EPACE will launch in January 2025 to educate the next generation of scientists on compact accelerator technologies and explore applications and commercial opportunities. The consortium, led by DESY, consists of 9 academic collaborators and 1 private company spanning over 7 EU countries, as well as 22 associated partners worldwide.

Novel compact accelerators, in particular plasma accelerators, and laser-based x-ray sources are on the verge of reaching maturity, making now the perfect time to steer them towards a broader scope of applications in academia, medicine, security and industry. At the intersection of scientific domains as varied as high-intensity laser science, high-performance computing, theoretical and experimental plasma and accelerator physics, and artificial intelligence, these systems could shrink the cost and size of accelerators and open up new domains of applications in various fields of science. EPACE makes an additional step forward with its strong entrepreneurship program proposed to facilitate technology transfer by addressing the increasing need for specialists in these fields. The program will engage with industry, pooling R&D efforts to expose the commercial opportunities of this state-of-the-art compact accelerator technology.

Starting on January 1, 2025, the four-year-long program funds 15 PhD projects to perform cutting-edge research within the consortium. In addition, the students participating in the program will undergo comprehensive training including secondments at partner institutions and companies, network-wide events and summer schools (covering accelerator science, plasma physics, high-performance computing, photon science, and radiotherapy as well as transferable skills such as courses in scientific presenting, writing and communication). On top of this, the students will receive instruction in entrepreneurship provided by French business school HEC (École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) to identify commercial opportunities around compact accelerators and assess their viability.

List of doctoral projects with short description (see contact person for more information)

Project 1: kHz laser-wakefield acceleration (contact: Stefan Karsch, LMU)

Demonstrate the recently proposed P-MoPA concept in which high-repetition-rate plasma accelerator operation is achieved through use of highly efficient picosecond thin-disk lasers. The long picosecond pulses are modulated to create a pulse train that can then resonantly excite a plasma wakefield.

Project 2: Snapshot tomography of laser-plasma acceleration (contact: Andreas Döpp, LMU)

Apply tomographic principles and compressed sensing to image the plasma wakefield in a laser plasma accelerator with unprecedented accuracy. A single shot or snapshot method will be demonstrated, allowing for the extraction of information about the full 3D structure of the transient accelerating cavity.

Project 3: Machine-Learning-Enhanced Laser Plasma Accelerators (contact: Manuel Kirchen, DESY)

Improve the performance and stability of a high-repetition rate laser-plasma accelerator through a combination of predictive and active-stabilization of the driving laser system. We will demonstrate long-term and stable operation of a laser-driven plasma accelerator.

Project 4: Tailored plasma targets for Laser Wakefield Acceleration (contact: Gediminas Račiukaitis, FTMC)

Design and simulate tailored plasma targets via use of custom gas nozzles. The nozzles will be manufactured via hybrid laser microfabrication. Experimental testing will be performed at project partner facilities to determine the improvement in accelerator stability and tunability.

Project 5: Production of high-density spin-polarized hydrogen-atom target (contact: Peter Rakitzis, FORTH)

Produce spin-polarized atoms over a range of densities relevant for plasma acceleration. The method will be Implemented in a laser plasma accelerator to demonstrate acceleration of a polarized electron beam. Polarized electron beam are important for high-energy physics and material science.

Project 6: Spin polarisation in plasma accelerators (contact: Gudrid Moortgat-Pick, UHH)

Study the physics of spin depolarisation in plasma accelerators and understand the effect of beam parameters on final polarisation. Concepts for the experimental realisation of a spin-polarised plasma accelerator will be developed. This project is at the interface between RF and plasma-based accelerators.

Project 7: Very high energy electrons (VHEE) radiotherapy with beams from a wakefield accelerator (contact: Henri Vincenti, CEA)

Use numerical modelling to optimize the properties of laser-plasma accelerators in the 50 MeV-200 MeV range for VHEE radiotherapy, and evaluate the effect on DNA using Geant4DNA. GPU-capable codes WarpX and HiPACE++ will be used. This includes exchanges with experiments planned at a 100 TW laser facility at CEA.

Project 8: Compact muon and electron source combined with the GScan detector system: the radiological system for medical applications (contact: Madis Kiisk, GScan)

Explore the generation of muons and positrons from a compact laser-driven plasma accelerator combined with a converter target. The application of these beams to a medical tomographic system will be studied. Suitability of the GScan plastic scintillator fiber for medical tomography will be demonstrated.

Project 9: Advancing radiotherapy with laser-plasma accelerators (contact: Olle Lundh, ULUND)

This project aims to develop a compact laser-plasma accelerator platform for precise delivery of very-high-energy electron (VHEE) radiotherapy. The student will focus on characterising realistic radiation doses, optimising dose distribution, and proposing optimised treatment planning strategies.

Project 10: ICS soft x-ray source for semiconductor wafer metrology (contact: Jom Luiten, TU/e)

Develop an inverse Compton scattering source operating in the 10-40 keV range. The student will demonstrate the application of these x-rays to the characterization of semiconductor wafers. Opportunities to pursue courses covering key topics in accelerator physics, beam physics and advanced electrodynamics.

Project 11: Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) x-ray source from a high repetition rate laser wakefield accelerator (contact: Jérôme Faure, LOA)

Develop a plasma accelerator operated for extended periods of time at a high repetition rate (100 Hz) with a level of stability in line with conventional RF accelerators. The student will demonstrate an ICS source operating at this repetition rate, characterize the produced radiation and investigate the usability for material science.

Project 12: Controlling plasma sources on hydrodynamic time scales to better plasma accelerators (contact: Maxence Thévenet, DESY)

Develop novel simulation capabilities to simulate advanced schemes of HOFI channels, a recent method for laser guiding that allows laser-driven plasma accelerators to reach higher electron energies. The student will investigate novel plasma shaping methods to improve the brightness of LPA electron beams.

Project 13: Theoretical study of superluminal laser-plasma acceleration (contact: Cédric Thaury, LOA)

Develop a concept for superluminal acceleration to increase the energy of the electron beams by an order of magnitude. The student will develop the start-to-end modelling of the superluminal pulse formation, propagation in plasma, and wakefield acceleration.

Project 14: Plasma Mirrors: towards extreme intensity light sources and high-quality compact electron accelerators (contact: Henri Vincenti, CEA)

Expand WarpX capabilities for lower cost-to-convergence using mesh refinement. The student will devise a high-charge, high-quality injector for laser-plasma accelerators and determine feasibility of the proposed scheme on a 100-TW-class laser system.

Project 15: Better beam quality in plasma accelerators through high-performance computing (contact: Wim Leemans, DESY)

Develop advanced algorithms and implement new capabilities into HiPACE++, an open-source quasi-static particle-in-cell code which can accurately simulate plasma accelerator interactions while cutting the simulation cost by 10x. Investigate 3D effects such as hosing in long-beam plasma acceleration regime.

Applications will be accepted starting around March 2025, for a starting date of the PhD candidates before September 2025. Besides standard conditions, applicants must satisfy the Marie Skłodowska-Curie mobility rule, more details can be found on the EU website. Each PhD project is funded for a duration of three years. See https://epace.eu (in construction) for more information, in particular for the application portal.

Consortium

• Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) https://www.desy.de
• The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) https://www.cea.fr/english
• The Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) https://www.forth.gr/en/home
• The Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC) https://www.ftmc.lt/en
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) https://www.lmu.de/en/about-lmu
• The National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) https://www.cnrs.fr/en
• Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) https://www.tue.nl/en
• Universität Hamburg (UHH) https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en.html
• Lund University (ULUND) https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se
• GScan OÜ https://www.gscan.eu

Download the call for PhD student for the EPACE project