THz-driven Dielectric Accelerators - position filled

(University of Pécs)

This project will study THz-driven Dielectric Accelerators (DLAs) in close collaboration with experts from the Wigner Institute and the University of Liverpool. Secondments to these partner organizations will complement a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary training program that the Fellow will benefit from during their time in the network.

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Dielectric Laser Accelerators based on dielectric gratings have proven to achieve loaded gradients exceeding 1 GeV/m. However, these structures are fundamentally limited as for a laser with mm wavelength, the gaps in the dielectric structures need to be a few hundred nm, thereby limiting the charge of the electron bunches to be accelerated.

EuPRAXIA offers a route to generating THz pulses with extremely high field strength and this shows great promise for beam manipulation, including acceleration, bending, spatial or temporal focusing.

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According to numerical simulations, it is possible to accelerate a 1.6 pC electron bunch from 1 MeV to 10 MeV by simultaneously compressing it from 100 fs to 2 fs. Using THz pulses rather than near-infrared pulses will enable avenues to exploit the advantages of the 2-3 orders of magnitude longer wavelength and oscillation period of THz pulses. Proof-of-principle measurements demonstrating the acceleration of relativistic electron beams using laser-generated THz pulses were done recently. This project will study acceleration of non-relativistic beams using the Osiris code with the University of Liverpool, working closely with the Wigner Institute on experimental studies.

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The Fellow will also have access to the wide-ranging EuPRAXIA-DN training program which will include several international schools and workshops on plasma accelerator science and technology, as well as complementary skills.