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Laser-Driven Particle Accelerator Chips Could Advance Medical Devices

Today's accelerators use microwaves to boost the energy of electrons, but researchers have been looking for more economical alternatives. A new technique that uses ultrafast lasers to drive the accelerator is a leading candidate. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have used a laser to accelerate electrons at a rate ten times higher than conventional technology, in a nanostructured glass chip smaller than a grain of rice. The new "accelerator on a chip" could match the accelerating power of SLAC's 2-mile-long linear accelerator in just 100 feet, and deliver a million more electron pulses per second. This advance could dramatically shrink particle accelerators for science and medicine. Applications include small, portable X-ray sources to improve medical care, as well as more affordable medical imaging.

Topics:
Energy Imaging Lasers & Laser Systems Manufacturing & Prototyping Medical Nanotechnology Photonics

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    Transcript

    00:00:01 this animation shows how our accelerator on a chip uses laser light to boost electron energy the action takes place within a tiny Channel less than 1/ 1200th the thickness of a human hair laser light consists of waves with a uniform period and amplitude we use an infrared laser with a wavelength exactly twice the height of the channel these light waves have electric fields that

    00:00:26 oscillate back and forth as shown by the arrows green indicates a positive electric force that can accelerate an electron red represents a retarding force to achieve net acceleration the electrons must somehow encounter more green arrows than red we did this by modifying the channel we created a nanoscale pattern of ridges and gaps on the top and bottom of the channel this

    00:00:51 structure increases the laser light's electric field between the ridges and reduces it within the gaps electrons traveling through the patterned Channel now receive a big energy boost from the electric Fields between the ridges and lose only a little energy as they pass through the smaller Gap Fields the net result is a significant energy gain for those electrons that are perfectly timed

    00:01:13 with the laser light waves our initial experiment used a structure with over 500 ridges and accelerated electrons at a rate 10 times greater than today's slack linear accelerator which is powered by microwaves with further development future devices could be made much longer and achieve up to 10 times greater acceleration