Stable and Scalable Multistage Terahertz-Driven Particle Accelerator

Heng Tang, Lingrong Zhao, Pengfei Zhu, Xiao Zou, Jia Qi, Ya Cheng, Jiaqi Qiu, Xianggang Hu, Wei Song, Dao Xiang, and Jie Zhang
Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 074801 – Published 12 August 2021
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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 miniaccelerator 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 miniaccelerator and pave the way for functioning terahertz-driven high-energy accelerators.

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  • Received 28 April 2021
  • Revised 6 June 2021
  • Accepted 22 July 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.074801

© 2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Accelerators & BeamsAtomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Heng Tang1,2,*, Lingrong Zhao1,2,*, Pengfei Zhu1,2, Xiao Zou1,2, Jia Qi3, Ya Cheng3, Jiaqi Qiu4, Xianggang Hu5, Wei Song5, Dao Xiang1,2,6,7,†, and Jie Zhang1,2,‡

  • 1Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (Ministry of Education), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • 2Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • 3State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
  • 4Nuctech Company Limited, Beijing 100084, China
  • 5Science and Technology on High Power Microwave Laboratory, Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, Xi’an, Shanxi 710024, China
  • 6Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • 7Zhangjiang Institute for Advanced Study, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • dxiang@sjtu.edu.cn
  • jzhang1@sjtu.edu.cn

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Issue

Vol. 127, Iss. 7 — 13 August 2021

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