Stable and scalable multistage terahertz-driven particle accelerator

Abstract

Particle accelerators that use electromagnetic fields to increase a charged particle's energy have greatly advanced the development of science and industry since invention. However, the enormous cost and size of conventional radio-frequency accelerators have limited their accessibility. Here we demonstrate a mini-accelerator powered by terahertz pulses with wavelengths 100 times shorter than radio-frequency pulses. By injecting a short relativistic electron bunch to a 30-mm-long dielectric-lined waveguide and tuning the frequency of a 20-period terahertz pulse to the phase-velocity-matched value, precise and sustained acceleration for nearly 100% of the electrons is achieved with the beam energy spread essentially unchanged. Furthermore, by accurately controlling the phase of two terahertz pulses, the beam is stably accelerated successively in two dielectric waveguides with close to 100% charge coupling efficiency. Our results demonstrate stable and scalable beam acceleration in a multistage mini-accelerator and pave the way for functioning terahertz-driven high-energy accelerators.

References in corpus (14)

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• Segmented Terahertz Electron Accelerator and Manipulator (STEAM)
• Acceleration of electrons in the plasma wakefield of a proton bunch
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• Direct measurement of sub-10 fs relativistic electron beams with ultralow emittance
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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Mixed Diagnostics for Longitudinal Properties of Electron Bunches in a Free-Electron Laser
• Machine learning-based direct solver for one-to-many problems on temporal shaping of relativistic electron beams