Electron dynamics in grating-type dielectric laser accelerators: particle transfer function, generalized acceleration/deflection gradients and Panofsky-Wenzel theorem

TL;DR

This paper extends the concepts of acceleration and deflection gradients to complex phasor quantities in dielectric laser accelerators, providing a unified framework for analyzing particle transfer properties using a single generalized gradient.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized formulation of acceleration and deflection gradients as complex functions and relates them through a Panofsky-Wenzel theorem, simplifying the analysis of DLA unit cells.

Findings

Electromagnetic forces on particles are described by complex-valued gradients.

All particle transfer properties can be derived from a single generalized acceleration gradient.

The generalized gradients unify the analysis of acceleration and deflection in DLA.

Abstract

The notions of acceleration gradient and deflection gradient are generalized to phasor quantities (complex-valued functions) in the context of dielectric laser acceleration (DLA). It is shown that the electromagnetic forces imparted on a near-resonant particle traversing a unit cell of a grating-type DLA can be conveniently described by generalized acceleration and deflection gradients. A~simple formulation of the Panofsky-Wenzel theorem in terms of the generalized gradients is given. It is shown that all particle transfer properties of a DLA unit cell can be derived from a single, complex-valued function, the generalized acceleration gradient.