Silicon dual pillar structure with a distributed Bragg reflector for dielectric laser accelerators: Design and fabrication

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel silicon dual pillar dielectric laser accelerator structure with a distributed Bragg reflector, fabricated via electron beam lithography, capable of accelerating electrons with a gradient of about 150 MeV/m.

Contribution

Introduction of a new dual pillar DLA design with a distributed Bragg reflector, demonstrating effective electron acceleration and potential for higher gradients.

Findings

Achieved 150 MeV/m acceleration gradient.

Fabricated using electron beam lithography and cryogenic reactive ion etching.

Potential to reach GeV/m acceleration gradients.

Abstract

Dielectric laser accelerators (DLAs) have proven to be good candidates for miniaturized particle accelerators. They rely on micro-fabricated dielectrics which are able to modulate the kinetic energy of the incoming electron beam under a proper laser illumination. In this paper we demonstrate a dual pillar structure with a distributed Bragg reflector to mimic a double sided illumination to the electron path. The structure is fabricated by an electron beam lithography technique followed by a cryogenic reactive ion etching process. Such a structure can accelerate the injected 28 keV electrons by a gradient of approximately 150 MeV/m which can be further optimized towards the GeV/m regime.