  Plasma Wakefield Acceleration (PWFA) provides ultrahigh acceleration
gradients of 10s of GeV/m, providing a novel path towards efficient, compact,
TeV-scale linear colliders and high brightness free electron lasers. Critical
to the success of these applications is demonstrating simultaneously high
gradient acceleration, high energy transfer efficiency, and preservation of
emittance, charge, and energy spread. Experiments at the FACET-II National User
Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory aim to achieve all of these
milestones in a single stage plasma wakefield accelerator, providing a 10 GeV
energy gain in a <1 m plasma with high energy transfer efficiency. Such a
demonstration depends critically on diagnostics able to measure emittance with
mm-mrad accuracy, energy spectra to determine both %-level energy spread and
broadband energy gain and loss, incoming longitudinal phase space, and matching
dynamics. This paper discusses the experimental setup at FACET-II, including
the incoming beam parameters from the FACET-II linac, plasma sources, and
diagnostics developed to meet this challenge. Initial progress on the
generation of beam ionized wakes in meter-scale hydrogen gas is discussed, as
well as commissioning of the plasma sources and diagnostics.
