Improving Benchtop Particle Accelerators
March 23, 2016 | AIP.orgEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which helped scientists discover the Higgs boson, is a huge instrument buried under the Swiss-French border. It needs 27 kilometers of track to accelerate particles close to the speed of light before smashing them together. Yet there's another type of particle accelerator, called a laser wakefield accelerator, that requires only a fraction of the distance of conventional accelerators like the LHC.
Now researchers from India and South Korea have proposed a new way to improve the beam quality of laser wakefield accelerators, sometimes called benchtop accelerators because they can fit on a standard laboratory table. Because laser wakefied accelerators are a fraction of the size and cost of convention accelerators, they could bring high energy physics experiments to more labs and universities, and produce charged particles for medical treatments. Improving the beam quality could improve the effectiveness of the devices.
The researchers describe their method in a paper in the Journal of Applied Physics, from AIP Publishing.
Conventional particle accelerators use electric fields or radio waves to accelerate bunches of charged particles. Laser wakefield accelerators operate on a very different principle.
The laser in the laser wakefield accelerator sends a pulse through a diffuse plasma. Plasma is a state of matter that contains positive ions and free electrons. The laser pulse excites waves in the plasma. The waves, in turn, create an electric field, also known as a laser wakefield, that traps electrons and accelerates them to energy levels up to the order of gigaelectronvolts. In comparison, the LHC, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, can accelerate particles to energy levels of teraelectronvolts (1000 gigaelectronvolts).
The Indian and South Korean research team identified a technique they think could increase the number of electrons trapped in the wake of the laser pulse, and therefore improve the beam quality of laser wakefield accelerators.
The finding could improve technology for future accelerators, said Devki Nandan Gupta, a physicist at the University of Delhi in India and a member of the team.
In addition to an electric field, plasma-laser interactions can generate a magnetic field. When a laser pulse propagates through a plasma, the electric field of the laser pulse pushes the electrons around. If there is a net electron current within the pulse, it generates a magnetic field.
Gupta and his colleagues analysed laser-plasma dynamics using 2D computer simulations and found that if the plasma density varies and if the laser pulse compresses at the front so that it is asymmetric, both factors produce a larger magnetic field.
"Our study might be helpful in improving the beam quality of the laser wakefield accelerators," Gupta said. "The self-generated magnetic field bends the trajectory of the outgoing electrons towards the plasma wake, consequently the total number of trapped charge particles in the plasma wake increases and hence the total charge in the accelerated bunch in the laser wakefield acceleration increases."
Plasma-based accelerators require approximately 1000 times less distance than standard particle accelerators to achieve a comparable particle energy level. However, the technology is still in the developmental stage. Experimental plasma accelerators have been built in some national labs and universities and the technology continues to improve.
Gupta and his colleagues hope their work could facilitate the next generation of plasma accelerators. "The next step would be to justify these results in three-dimensional geometry. Of course, we may think to test these results experimentally in future as well," he said.
Suggested Items
Warm Windows and Streamlined Skin Patches – IDTechEx Explores Flexible and Printed Electronics
04/26/2024 | IDTechExFlexible and printed electronics can be integrated into cars and homes to create modern aesthetics that are beneficial and easy to use. From luminous car controls to food labels that communicate the quality of food, the uses of this technology are endless and can upgrade many areas of everyday life.
Scientists Propose a New Way to Search for Dark Matter
04/02/2024 | SLAC National Accelerator LaboratoryEver since its discovery, dark matter has remained invisible to scientists, despite the launch of multiple ultra-sensitive particle detector experiments around the world over several decades.
Walmart Acquires Vizio, Set to Overtake Samsung as the Largest TV Brand in the US
02/22/2024 | TrendForceUS retail giant Walmart announced on February 20, that it has acquired smart TV brand Vizio for US$2.3 billion, aiming to accelerate the growth of its advertising business: Walmart Connect. Since its launch in 2021, Walmart Connect has seen double-digit annual growth in both its online and offline retail media advertising ventures. Vizio has been expanding its device ecosystem and its SmartCast TV OS, boasting over 18 million active users, according to TrendForce.
Fiber Optic Cables Effective Way to Detect Tsunamis
02/16/2024 | University of MichiganFiber optic cables that line ocean floors could provide a less expensive, more comprehensive alternative to the current buoys that act as early warning systems for tsunamis, says a University of Michigan researcher.
EIPC Winter Conference 2024, Day 2: A Closer Look at Global Trends
02/14/2024 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007The opening session of the second day’s conference proceedings focused on global PCB trends and was introduced and moderated by Dr. Michele Stampanoni, vice president of strategic sales and business development at Cicor Group in Switzerland. He opened the session with Dr. Hayao Nakahara’s knowledgeable and enlightening video presentation on the IC substrates industry.