Particle-assisted wakefield electron acceleration devices
View Patent ↗Disclosed herein are particle-assisted wakefield electron acceleration devices, accelerated electrons generated using said devices, and methods of use thereof.
1 . A particle accelerator, the particle accelerator comprising:
an accelerator chamber having a length of at most 500 cm, wherein the particle accelerator is configured to accelerate an electron within said accelerator chamber to an energy of at least 10 GeV.
2 . The particle accelerator of claim 1 , wherein the accelerator chamber comprises a gas cell.
3 . The particle accelerator of claim 2 , wherein the gas cell comprises a low density gas.
4 . The particle accelerator of claim 2 , wherein the gas cell comprises a particle.
5 . The particle accelerator of claim 4 , wherein the particle is a metallic particle.
6 . The particle accelerator of claim 4 , wherein the gas cell is configured to contain the particle.
7 . The particle accelerator of claim 1 , wherein the accelerator chamber is configured to receive a pulse.
8 . The particle accelerator of claim 7 , wherein the pulse is a laser pulse.
9 . The particle accelerator of claim 7 , wherein the pulse is directed at the accelerator chamber.
10 . The particle accelerator of claim 9 , wherein the pulse is configured to generate electrons in the accelerator chamber at least in part by ionizing a low density gas and a particle.
11 . The particle accelerator of claim 10 , wherein the low density gas is configured to form a plasma wave upon ionization.
12 . The particle accelerator of claim 11 , wherein the plasma wave is a wakefield.
13 . The particle accelerator of claim 11 , wherein the plasma wave comprises the electrons.
14 . The particle accelerator of claim 13 , wherein the plasma wave is configured to accelerate the electrons.
15 . The particle accelerator of claim 4 , wherein the particle accelerator further comprises a particle source configured to provide the particle.
16 . The particle accelerator of claim 15 , wherein the particle source comprises an ablation laser configured to ablate a target, thereby creating a particle.
17 . A method for accelerating electrons, the method comprising:
(a) providing a particle accelerator having a length of at most 500 cm; and
(b) accelerating a particle within the particle accelerator to an energy of at least 10 GeV.
18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises receiving a pulse by the particle accelerator.
19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises generating electrons in the particle accelerator at least in part by ionizing a low density gas and a particle.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the method further comprises forming the low density gas into a plasma wave after ionization of the low density gas.
21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein the accelerating in (b) is imparted by the plasma wave.
22 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the method further comprises generating electrons in the particle accelerator by directing a pulse to an accelerator chamber of the particle accelerator.
23 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises ablating a target by an ablation laser to generate a particle in the particle accelerator.