title: Terahertz-driven linear electron acceleration.
abstract: The cost, size and availability of electron accelerators are dominated by the achievable accelerating gradient. Conventional high-brightness radio-frequency accelerating structures operate with 30-50 MeV m(-1) gradients. Electron accelerators driven with optical or infrared sources have demonstrated accelerating gradients orders of magnitude above that achievable with conventional radio-frequency structures. However, laser-driven wakefield accelerators require intense femtosecond sources and direct laser-driven accelerators suffer from low bunch charge, sub-micron tolerances and sub-femtosecond timing requirements due to the short wavelength of operation. Here we demonstrate linear acceleration of electrons with keV energy gain using optically generated terahertz pulses. Terahertz-driven accelerating structures enable high-gradient electron/proton accelerators with simple accelerating structures, high repetition rates and significant charge per bunch. These ultra-compact terahertz accelerators with extremely short electron bunches hold great potential to have a transformative impact for free electron lasers, linear colliders, ultrafast electron diffraction, X-ray science and medical therapy with X-rays and electron beams.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Emilio A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Nanni
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Wenqian R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Kyung-Han
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Koustuban
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ravi
authors.affiliation: Center for Free-Electron Laser Science and The Hamburg Center for Ultrafast Imaging, Hamburg 22607, Germany.|Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Ultrafast Optics and X-rays Division, Hamburg 22607, Germany.
authors.forename: Arya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fallahi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S, Canada.
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moriena
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Ultrafast Optics and X-rays Division, Hamburg 22607, Germany.|Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S, Canada.|Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg 22607, Germany.
authors.forename: R J Dwayne
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.|Center for Free-Electron Laser Science and The Hamburg Center for Ultrafast Imaging, Hamburg 22607, Germany.|Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Ultrafast Optics and X-rays Division, Hamburg 22607, Germany.|Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg 20148, Germany.
authors.forename: Franz X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Kärtner