Demonstration of acceleration of relativistic electrons at a dielectric microstructure using femtosecond laser pulses.

Acceleration of electrons using laser-driven dielectric microstructures is a promising technology for the miniaturization of particle accelerators. Achieving the desired GV m-1 accelerating gradients is possible only with laser pulse durations shorter than ∼1 ps. In this Letter, we present, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of acceleration of relativistic electrons at a dielectric microstructure driven by femtosecond duration laser pulses. Using this technique, an electron accelerating gradient of 690±100 MV m-1 was measured-a record for dielectric laser accelerators.

Electron beam position monitor for a dielectric microaccelerator.

We report the fabrication and first demonstration of an electron beam position monitor for a dielectric microaccelerator. This device is fabricated on a fused silica substrate using standard optical lithography techniques and uses the radiated optical wavelength to measure the electron beam position with a resolution of 10 µm, or 7% of the electron beam spot size. This device also measures the electron beam spot size in one dimension.

Design of a subnanometer resolution beam position monitor for dielectric laser accelerators.

We present a new concept for a beam position monitor with the unique ability to map particle beam position to a measurable wavelength. Coupled with an optical spectrograph, this beam position monitor is capable of subnanometer resolution. We describe one possible design, and through finite-element frequency-domain simulations, we show a resolution of 0.7 nm. Because of its high precision and ultracompact form factor, this device is ideal for future x-ray sources and laser-driven particle accelerators "on a chip."