Spatio-Temporal Coupling Controlled Laser for Electron Acceleration

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spatio-temporal coupling controlled laser scheme for dielectric laser accelerators, enabling efficient acceleration of non-relativistic electrons to sub-MeV energies in a single structure, with potential for portable applications.

Contribution

The study presents a novel STC-controlled laser method that synchronizes electron acceleration across a broad energy range, advancing on-chip dielectric laser accelerator technology.

Findings

Achieved sub-MeV electron acceleration in a single structure

Demonstrated high-precision temporal and spatial laser tuning

Extended the method to terahertz driving fields

Abstract

Limited by the difficulty in acceleration synchronization, it has been a long-term challenge for on-chip dielectric laser-based accelerators (DLA) to bridge the gap between non-relativistic and relativistic regimes. Here, we propose a DLA based on a spatio-temporal coupling (STC) controlled laser pulse, which enables the acceleration of a non-relativistic electron to a sub-MeV level in a single acceleration structure (chirped spatial grating). It provides high precision temporal and spatial tuning of the driving laser via the dispersion manipulation, leading to a synchronous acceleration of the velocity increasing electrons over a large energy range. Additionally, the STC scheme is a general method and can be extended to driving fields of other wavelengths such as terahertz pulses. Our results bring new possibilities to MeV-scale portable electron sources and table-top acceleration experiments.