Wakefield acceleration in plasmas holds the promise of enabling compact lepton accelerators due to the achievable acceleration gradients in the GV/m to even TV/m range. Depending on the use case, laser pulses as well as particle bunches for driving these wakefields are considered. At DESY, central aspects of both concepts are investigated in various projects, with a focus on application-readiness of plasma-based accelerators. This talk will give an overview of the plasma acceleration projects at DESY and a more detailed insight into high-repetition-rate, beam-driven plasma wakefield experiments and plasma sources development.
Paul Neumayer