An overview of advances in laser plasma accelerators and their future prospect

Laser powered plasma based accelerators, where electrons surf on plasma waves, can now reach multi-GeV energy levels in a few tens of cm. In contrast, relying on conventional methods to reach such energy levels would require machines that are multiple football fields long. Although many challenges remain to reach high power beams with exquisite quality and high reliability, this new technology is at the brink of offering a profoundly different way in which we may build particle accelerators.

An overview of the latest progress and the next steps in the R&D needed to advance this technology will be presented. Applications such as generation of intense radiation, injection into storage rings, future colliders and medical therapy will be discussed.