Acceleration of relativistic beams using laser-generated terahertz pulses

Abstract

Dielectric structures driven by laser-generated terahertz (THz) pulses may hold the key to overcoming the technological limitations of conventional particle accelerators and with recent experimental demonstrations of acceleration, compression and streaking of low-energy (sub-100 keV) electron beams, operation at relativistic beam energies is now essential to realize the full potential of THz-driven structures. We present the first THz-driven linear acceleration of relativistic 35 MeV electron bunches, exploiting the collinear excitation of a dielectric-lined waveguide driven by the longitudinal electric field component of polarization-tailored, narrowband THz pulses. Our results pave the way to unprecedented control over relativistic electron beams, providing bunch compression for ultrafast electron diffraction, energy manipulation for bunch diagnostics, and ultimately delivering high-field gradients for compact THz-driven particle acceleration.

8 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (17)

• Terahertz-driven linear electron acceleration
• Dielectric Laser Acceleration
• Laser-based acceleration of non-relativistic electrons at a dielectric structure
• Segmented Terahertz Electron Accelerator and Manipulator (STEAM)
• Relativistic electron beams driven by kHz single-cycle light pulses
• Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors
• THz pulses over 50 millijoules generated from relativistic picosecond laser-plasma interactions
• Direct laser acceleration of electrons in free-space
• Femtosecond compression dynamics and timing jitter suppression in a terahertz-driven electron bunch compressor
• Relativistic electron beam acceleration in a zero-slippage terahertz-driven Inverse Free Electron Laser scheme
• Terahertz-driven, all-optical electron gun
• Femtosecond relativistic electron beam with reduced timing jitter from THz-driven beam compression
• Alternating Phase Focusing for Dielectric Laser Acceleration
• Terahertz oscilloscope for recording time information of ultrashort electron beams
• Demonstration of sub-luminal propagation of single-cycle terahertz pulses for particle acceleration
• Time-resolved observation of coherent excitonic nonlinear response with a table-top narrowband THz pulse wave
• Electron-Terahertz Interaction in Dielectric-Lined Waveguide Structures for Electron Manipulation

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Cascaded high-gradient terahertz-driven acceleration of relativistic electron beams
• Stable and scalable multistage terahertz-driven particle accelerator
• Diffraction at the Open-Ended Dielectric-Loaded Circular Waveguide: Rigorous Approach
• Diffraction at the Open End of Dielectric-Lined Circular Waveguide
• Self-calibration technique for characterization of integrated THz waveguides
• Transverse Confinement of Electron Beams in a 2D Optical Lattice for Compact Coherent X-Ray Sources
• Visualizing femtosecond dynamics with ultrafast electron probes through terahertz compression and time-stamping
• On the possibility of resonant acceleration of charged particles by the field of a transverse electromagnetic wave in vacuum