COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ACCELERATION GRADIENTS FOR CHIP STRUCTURES WITH DIFFERENT REFRACTIVE INDICES

The results of numerical studies of accelerating gradients in accelerators based on dielectric chip structures with different refractive indices, excited by a titanium-sapphire laser pulse, are presented. A comparative analysis of the influence of the refractive index on the rate of acceleration of electron bunches is carried out. Promising materials for the manufacture of dielectric laser accelerators are proposed.

Commissioning Results and Electron Beam Characterization with the S-Band Photoinjector at SINBAD-ARES

Over the years, the generation and acceleration of ultra-short, high quality electron beams has attracted more and more interest in accelerator science. Electron bunches with these properties are necessary to operate and test novel diagnostics and advanced high-gradient accelerating schemes, such as plasma accelerators and dielectric laser accelerators. Furthermore, several medical and industrial applications require high-brightness electron beams. The dedicated R&D facility ARES at DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) will provide such probe beams in the upcoming years. After the setup of the normal-conducting, radio-frequency (RF) photoinjector and linear accelerating structures, ARES successfully started the beam commissioning of the RF gun. This paper gives an overview of the ARES photoinjector setup and summarizes the results of the gun commissioning process. The quality of the first electron beams is characterized in terms of charge, momentum, momentum spread and beam size. Additionally, the dependencies of the beam parameters on RF settings are described. All measurement results of the characterized beams fulfill the requirements for operating the ARES linac with this RF photoinjector.

ACCELERATION OF ELECTRON BUNCHES USING PERIODIC DIELECTRIC STRUCTURES WITH AND WITHOUT COATING

The numerical studies of high acceleration gradients obtaining for the dielectric laser accelerators (DLA) based on-chip structures with one-sided laser excitation at a wavelength of 800 nm are presented. The electron flight heights of 200 and 400 nm over a structure are presented. The influence of the geometric parameters of the structures on the acceleration gradients was also investigated. A study of changes in the acceleration gradients of structures, when applying a gold coating on these types of structures, has been carried out.

Optically Switchable MeV Ion/Electron Accelerator

The versatility of laser accelerators in generating particle beams of various types is often promoted as a key applicative advantage. These multiple types of particles, however, are generated on vastly different irradiation setups, so that switching from one type to another involves substantial mechanical changes. In this letter, we report on a laser-based accelerator that generates beams of either multi-MeV electrons or ions from the same thin-foil irradiation setup. Switching from generation of ions to electrons is achieved by introducing an auxiliary laser pulse, which pre-explodes the foil tens of ns before irradiation by the main pulse. We present an experimental characterization of the emitted beams in terms of energy, charge, divergence, and repeatability, and conclude with several examples of prospective applications for industry and research.