- Aschikhin, A
- Behrens, C
- Bohlen, S
- Dale, J
- Delbos, N
- Di Lucchio, L
- Elsen, E
- Erbe, JH
- Felber, M
- Foster, B
- Goldberg, L
- Grebenyuk, J
- Gruse, JN
- Hidding, B
- Hu, Z
- Karstensen, S
- Knetsch, A
- Kononenko, O
- Libov, V
- Ludwig, K
- Maier, AR
- Martinez De La Ossa, A
- Mehrling, T
- Palmer, CAJ
- Pannek, F
- Schaper, L
- Schlarb, H
- Schmidt, B
- Schreiber, S
- Schwinkendorf, JP
- Steel, H
- Streeter, M
- Tauscher, G
- Wacker, V
- Weichert, S
- Wunderlich, S
- Zemella, J
- Osterhoff, J
- et al.
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. The FLASHForward project at DESY is a pioneering plasma-wakefield acceleration experiment that aims to produce, in a few centimetres of ionised hydrogen, beams with energy of order GeV that are of quality sufficient to be used in a free-electron laser. The plasma is created by ionising a gas in a gas cell with a multi-TW laser system. The plasma wave will be driven by high-current-density electron beams from the FLASH linear accelerator. The laser system can also be used to provide optical diagnostics of the plasma and electron beams due to the <30 fs synchronisation between the laser and the driving electron beam. The project will explore both external and internal witness-beam injection techniques. The operation parameters of the experiment are discussed, as well as the scientific programme.