Experimental Demonstration of Terahertz-Driven Particle Acceleration

人们对使用激光产生的太赫兹(THz)辐射源来缩小当今粒子加速器的规模越来越感兴趣，他们的最终梦想是生产出紧凑的实验室大小的机器，用于从多功能X射线源到医疗的各种应用。该项目旨在将新型太赫兹(THz)驱动的加速提升到一个新的国际领先水平。通过结合超快激光产生的太赫兹辐射源的开发和对太赫兹与电子束相互作用的新理解，我们寻求开发一种理想的相互作用方案，并突破传统射频加速腔的100 mV/m加速梯度限制。这将通过开发具有多mV/m场强的激光驱动太赫兹源，并探索太赫兹脉冲与电子束的相互作用以及随后加速束的束流动力学来实现。该项目将主要集中于利用激光驱动的太赫兹源，将来自桌面电子枪的低能100keV电子束加速到MeV能量区，但也将涉及STFC达累斯伯里国家实验室的50 MeV直线加速器Clara的工作。太赫兹源开发将探索使用新型太赫兹发射器来生产所需的100 mV/m场，受益于曼彻斯特最近资助的太赫兹源开发计划。该项目还将使用Cockcroft超快激光系统(最近通过STFC的资本拨款授予兰开斯特、曼彻斯特和利物浦)。

There is growing interest in the use of laser-generated terahertz (THz) radiation sources to reduce the scale of today's particle accelerators with the ultimate dream of producing compact laboratory-sized machines for applications ranging from versatile x-ray sources to medical treatment. This project seeks to take novel terahertz (THz)-driven acceleration to a new and internationally leading level. By combining ultrafast laser generated THz radiation source development with a new understanding of THz-electron beam interactions, we seek to develop an idealised interaction scheme and breakthrough the 100 MV/m accelerating gradient limit of conventional radio-frequency accelerating cavities. This will be achieved by developing laser-driven terahertz sources with multi-MV/m field strengths and exploring the interaction of the THz pulse with the electron beam and the subsequent beam dynamics of the accelerated beam. The project will focus primarily on exploiting laser-driven terahertz sources to accelerate low energy 100 keV electron beams from a table-top electron gun into the MeV energy regime, but will also involve work on CLARA, a 50 MeV linear accelerator at STFC Daresbury National Laboratory. The THz source development will explore the use of novel THz emitters for producing the required 100 MV/m fields, benefitting from a recent funded programme of THz source development at Manchester. This project will also involve the use of the Cockcroft ultrafast laser system (recently awarded to Lancaster, Manchester and Liverpool through a STFC capital grant).