On-chip integrated laser-driven particle accelerator
Particle accelerators represent an indispensable tool in science and industry. However, the size and cost of conventional radio-frequency accelerators limit the utility and reach of this technology. Dielectric laser accelerators (DLAs) provide a compact and cost-effective solution to this problem by driving accelerator nanostructures with visible or near-infrared pulsed lasers, resulting in a 104reduction of scale. Current implementations of DLAs rely on free-space lasers directly incident on the accelerating structures, limiting the scalability and integrability of this technology. In this article, we present an experimental demonstration of a waveguide-integrated DLA that was designed using a photonic inverse-design approach. By comparing the measured electron energy spectra with particle-tracking simulations, we infer a maximum energy gain of 0.915 kilo–electron volts over 30 micrometers, corresponding to an acceleration gradient of 30.5 mega–electron volts per meter. On-chip acceleration provides the possibility for a completely integrated mega–electron volt-scale DLA.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; European Commission (EC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515; SC0009914
- OSTI ID:
- 1580805
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1604558
- Journal Information:
- Science, Journal Name: Science Journal Issue: 6473 Vol. 367; ISSN 0036-8075
- Publisher:
- AAASCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Trace-gas Spectroscopy of Methane on a Silicon Photonic Chip
On-chip optical tweezers based on freeform optics