Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Peralta, E. A.
• Soong, K.
• England, R. J.
• Colby, E. R.
• Wu, Z.
• Montazeri, B.
• McGuinness, C.
• McNeur, J.
• Leedle, K. J.
• Walz, D.
• Sozer, E. B.
• Cowan, B.
• Schwartz, B.
• Travish, G.
• Byer, R. L.

Titel

Demonstration of electron acceleration in a laser-driven dielectric microstructure

Ist Teil von

• Nature (London), 2013-11, Vol.503 (7474), p.91-94

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group UK

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Quelle

Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Acceleration of relativistic electrons in a dielectric laser accelerator at high electric field gradients is reported, setting the stage for the development of future multi-staged accelerators of this type. A new breed of particle accelerator Conventional particle accelerators, based on radio-frequency technology, are large-scale installations that are expensive to run. Micro-fabricated dielectric laser accelerators (DLAs) offer an attractive alternative, as they are able to support much larger accelerating fields than current accelerators, while being compact, economical and simple to manufacture using lithographic techniques. This paper presents the first experimental demonstration of a DLA capable of sustained, high-gradient (beyond 250 MeV m −1 ) acceleration of relativistic electrons. The results set the stage for the development of future multi-staged DLA devices composed of integrated on-chip systems, which would enable compact table-top MeV–GeV-scale accelerators. Applications include security scanners and medical therapy, X-ray light sources for biological and materials research, and portable medical imaging devices. The enormous size and cost of current state-of-the-art accelerators based on conventional radio-frequency technology has spawned great interest in the development of new acceleration concepts that are more compact and economical. Micro-fabricated dielectric laser accelerators (DLAs) are an attractive approach, because such dielectric microstructures can support accelerating fields one to two orders of magnitude higher than can radio-frequency cavity-based accelerators. DLAs use commercial lasers as a power source, which are smaller and less expensive than the radio-frequency klystrons that power today’s accelerators. In addition, DLAs are fabricated via low-cost, lithographic techniques that can be used for mass production. However, despite several DLA structures having been proposed recently 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , no successful demonstration of acceleration in these structures has so far been shown. Here we report high-gradient (beyond 250 MeV m −1 ) acceleration of electrons in a DLA. Relativistic (60-MeV) electrons are energy-modulated over 563 ± 104 optical periods of a fused silica grating structure, powered by a 800-nm-wavelength mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. The observed results are in agreement with analytical models and electrodynamic simulations. By comparison, conventional modern linear accelerators operate at gradients of 10–30 MeV m −1 , and the first linear radio-frequency cavity accelerator was ten radio-frequency periods (one metre) long with a gradient of approximately 1.6 MeV m −1 (ref. 5 ). Our results set the stage for the development of future multi-staged DLA devices composed of integrated on-chip systems. This would enable compact table-top accelerators on the MeV–GeV (10 6 –10 9  eV) scale for security scanners and medical therapy, university-scale X-ray light sources for biological and materials research, and portable medical imaging devices, and would substantially reduce the size and cost of a future collider on the multi-TeV (10 12  eV) scale.