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Subrelativistic Alternating Phase Focusing Dielectric Laser Accelerators.
Payton Broaddus1, Thilo Egenolf2, Dylan S Black1
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, 350 Serra Mall, Stanford, California 94305-9505, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|March 8, 2024
Summary
We developed a silicon electron accelerator using laser fields for acceleration and confinement. This dielectric laser accelerator (DLA) shows significant energy gains and strong electron confinement over extended distances.
Area of Science:
- Physics
- Materials Science
- Engineering
Background:
- Electron accelerators are crucial for scientific research and applications.
- Existing accelerators face limitations in size, energy efficiency, and beam control.
- Dielectric Laser Accelerators (DLAs) offer a promising alternative using optical near fields.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a silicon-based DLA capable of accelerating and confining electrons.
- To investigate the effectiveness of alternating phase focusing (APF) in DLAs.
- To achieve substantial energy gains in subrelativistic electrons using a compact DLA structure.
Main Methods:
- Designed and tested two silicon pillar DLA structures with varying acceleration gradients (35 and 50 MeV/m).
- Utilized pulse front tilted laser beams for symmetric pumping.
- Incorporated fractional period drift sections to modify synchronous phase for alternating focusing forces.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated DLAs with interaction lengths up to 708 μm.
- Achieved energy gains up to 23.7±1.07 keV FWHM, a 25% increase from the starting energy.
- Observed strong electron confinement enabling long interaction lengths.
Conclusions:
- Silicon-based DLAs can effectively accelerate and confine electrons over extended distances.
- APF lattices provide both longitudinal acceleration and transverse focusing.
- This technology shows potential for significant energy gains in subrelativistic electron acceleration.
