Terahertz-driven linear electron acceleration

The cost, size and availability of electron accelerators are dominated by the achievable accelerating gradient. Conventional high-brightness radio-frequency accelerating structures operate with 30-50 MeV m(-1) gradients. Electron accelerators driven with optical or infrared sources have demonstrated accelerating gradients orders of magnitude above that achievable with conventional radio-frequency structures. However, laser-driven wakefield accelerators require intense femtosecond sources and direct laser-driven accelerators suffer from low bunch charge, sub-micron tolerances and sub-femtosecond timing requirements due to the short wavelength of operation. Here we demonstrate linear acceleration of electrons…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 1042342, DMR-1042342
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-FG02-08ER41532, FG02-08ER41532, DE-FG02-10ER46745, DE-FG02-, DE-FG02
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Award: 609920
• HC
  Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging
• DA
  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

  Award: N66001-11-1-4192
• DE
  Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
• DO
  Division of Materials Research
• AF
  Air Force Office of Scientific Research

  Awards: AFOSR-A9550-12-1-0499, A9550-12-1-0499