2013/08/02 by John Breuer, Peter Hommelhoff · 4 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Acceleration #Atomic physics #Computational physics #Dielectric #Electron #Laser #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma #Materials science #Nuclear physics #Physics #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #physics.acc-ph #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.111.134803
5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2013/08/02 · openalex publication_date 2013/09/27 · arxiv updated 2015/06/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating dielectric laser acceleration of nonrelativistic electrons in the vicinity of a fused-silica grating is reported. The grating structure is utilized to generate an electromagnetic surface wave that travels synchronously with and efficiently imparts momentum on 28 keV electrons. We observe a maximum acceleration gradient of 25 MeV/m. We investigate in detail the parameter dependencies and find excellent agreement with numerical simulations. With the availability of compact and efficient fiber laser technology, these findings may pave the way towards an all-optical compact particle accelerator. This work also represents the demonstration of the inverse Smith-Purcell effect in the optical regime.