Short-pulse dielectric two-beam acceleration

We are exploring a new parameter space of the two-beam acceleration (TBA) scheme based on an ultra-short (similar to 20 ns) rf pulse in a dielectric TBA. All two-beam accelerators (TBAs) use an electron drive beam to generate high-power rf in a decelerator and extract this power to drive an accelerating structure to high gradient. Typically, the rf pulse is on the order of hundreds of us or greater in order to maintain good rf-to-beam efficiency. However, recent scaling arguments show that the rf breakdown threshold improves with decreasing rf pulse length, so it desirable to find a way to run at short-pulse length with good efficiency. In this paper, we discuss how we chose the design parameters of a short-pulse TBA for a TeV linear collider module. We then present plans for an experimental program to demonstrate TBA at Argonne wakefield accelerator (AWA) facility including high-power rf generation, high-gradient acceleration, and staging.