The electron spectrometer of the PlasmonX experiment: from the design to the operation

The PlasmonX project at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati was proposed in 2008. Concerning the plasma acceleration, the main purpose of the project consists in R&D activity aimed at demonstrate the high-gradient acceleration technique by the use FLAME, an ultra-short, high power laser system. The central topic of this thesis is the design, construction and commissioning of the device we use to characterize the accelerated electrons. As expected from simulation codes that investigates the interaction of a laser pulse with a preformed plasma, the accelerated electron bunch has peculiar characteristics and it is extremely challenging to realize a device capable to fit all of them. We expect energy spread over three order of magnitude (from few MeV to the GeV region), a significant angular divergence at low energy (10 mrad) and a huge number of particles (10^9) to detect at the same time. Considering these aspects we have designed, realized and operate an electron spectrometer that is largely described in this work.