Effect of pulsed ion-plasma impact and electron irradiation on mechanical properties of precipitation-hardened Inconel 718 alloy

The effect of pulsed ion-plasma irradiation in the Plasma Focus installation and irradiation with 20 MeV electrons at the Miсrotron-ST accelerator on the mechanical properties of the precipitation-hardening Inconel 718 alloy obtained by the method of selective laser fusion has been studied. It was found that ion-plasma and electron irradiation does not affect the properties of the alloy, which is explained by the small thickness of the modified layer during PF irradiation and insufficiently high electron fluence for the manifestation of radiation-stimulated processes of redistribution and dissolution of dispersed precipitates of the strengthening phases. The results obtained indicate a high resistance to crack propagation and the absence of a tendency of the studied alloy to embrittlement.

Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration in AWAKE

In this article, we briefly summarize the experiments performed during the first run of the Advanced Wakefield Experiment, AWAKE, at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). The final goal of AWAKE Run 1 (2013–2018) was to demonstrate that 10–20 MeV electrons can be accelerated to GeV energies in a plasma wakefield driven by a highly relativistic self-modulated proton bunch. We describe the experiment, outline the measurement concept and present first results. Last, we outline our plans for the future. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Directions in particle beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration’.