Femtosecond planar electron beam source for micron-scale dielectric wake field accelerator

Abstract

A new accelerator, LACARA (laser-driven cyclotron autoresonance accelerator), under construction at the Accelerator Test Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory, is to be powered by a 1 TW CO2 laser beam and a 50 MeV injected electron pulse. LACARA will produce inside a 2 m, 6 T solenoid a 100 MeV gyrating electron bunch, with ∼3% energy spread, approximately 1 psec in length with particles advancing in phase at the laser frequency, executing one cycle each 35 fsec. A beamstop with a small off axis channel will transmit a short beam pulse every optical cycle, thereby producing a train of about 30, 3.5 fsec long, 1-3 pC microbunches for each laser pulse. We describe here a novel accelerator, a micron-scale dielectric wake field accelerator driven by a 500 MeV LACARA-type injector that takes the output train of microbunches and transforms them into a near-rectangular cross section having a narrow dimension of ∼10 μm and height of ∼150 μm using a magnetic quadrupole; these bunches may be injected into a planar dielectric-lined waveguide (slightly larger than the bunch) where cumulative buildup of wake fields can lead to an accelerating gradient > 1 GV/m. This proposed vacuum-based wake field structure is physically rigid and capable of microfabrication accuracy, factors important in staging a large number of accelerator modules. Furthermore, the accelerating gradients it promises are comparable with those for plasma accelerators. A LACARA unit for preparing suitable bunches at 500 MeV is described. Physics issues are discussed, including bunch spreading and transport, bunch shaping, coherent diffraction radiation from the aperture, dielectric breakdown, and bunch stability in the rectangular wake field structure. © 2001 The American Physical Society.