US 2015/0145404 A1Published application

Method and Setup to Manipulate Electrically Charged Particles

AssigneeUniversity of Pécs

InventorsGábor Almási, József András Fülöp, János Hebling, Mátyás Mechler, László Pálfalvi

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Abstract

The invention relates to a such particle accelerator setup (1, 11) and method based on the total reflection of electromagnetic pulses with a frequency falling into the THz frequency domain that utilize the evanescent filed for the acceleration of electrically charged particles. Said setup includes a radiation source (5) to emit high-energy THz-pulses, preferably comprising a few optical cycles, having a large peak electric field strength, as well as two optical elements (2, 12) in the form of a pair of bulk crystals made of a substance that exhibits large refractive index, low dispersion and high optical destruction threshold, wherein said optical elements are transparent for the THz radiation. The inventive solutions represent much simpler, more compact and more cost effective alternatives compared to the prior art particle accelerator setups.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A particle accelerator apparatus to accelerate electrically charged particles, comprising:

a terahertz radiation source (5, 18) adapted to emit electromagnetic pulses with a frequency in a frequency range of 0.1 to 10 THz and characterized by an electric field having a peak electric field strength in an order of MV/cm;
a first optical element (2, 12) with planar first and second faces (2a, 12a;
2b, 12b);
and
a second optical element (2, 12) with planar first and second faces (2a, 12a;
2b, 12b), said first and second optical elements (2;
12) being in the form of identical objects made of a same substance, wherein
said optical elements (2, 12) are arranged symmetrically with said first faces (2a, 12a) facing to and parallel with each other and defining a gap therebetween with a size that allows unobstructed passing of the particles to be manipulated between said faces, wherein
the substance of said optical elements (2, 12) being optically transparent over the frequency range of 0.1 to 10 THz and exhibiting large optical destruction threshold field strength and low dispersion, wherein
said first and second optical elements (2, 12) and said terahertz radiation source (5, 18) are arranged in such a way that terahertz radiation emitted by the terahertz radiation source (5, 18) in a form of said electromagnetic pulses suffers total internal reflection at the first faces (2a, 12a) when passing through said first and second optical elements (2, 12).

7 more elements

A method to manipulate electrically charged particles, comprising:

arranging symmetrically two identical optical elements made of a same kind of substance and delimited by planar first and second faces in a configuration wherein said first faces are parallel with, facing to, and apart from each other,
directing an electromagnetic pulse with a frequency falling into a frequency range of 0.1 to 10 THz and characterized by an electric field having a peak electric field strength in an order of MV/cm to the first face of both optical elements through the substance of said optical elements under conditions ensuring total internal reflection of the pulse at the first face, thereby generating an evanescent electromagnetic field within a region between said optical elements,
passing the electrically charged particles to be manipulated through the evanescent electromagnetic field in a symmetry plane of said evanescent field parallel with said first faces of the optical elements in a direction of the electric field of the evanescent electromagnetic field in synchronization with the electromagnetic pulse, and thereby inducing an increase in speed of said particles.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.