2019/08/12 by Morgan T. Hibberd, Alisa Healy, Alisa L. Healy +20 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Acceleration #Far-infrared laser #Laser #Laser beams #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photomixing #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Terahertz metamaterials #Terahertz radiation #Terahertz technology and applications #physics.acc-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41566-020-0674-1
8 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2019/08/12 · openalex publication_date 2020/08/10 · arxiv updated 2020/08/13 · openalex created_date 2020/08/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
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.