Slow waves in microchannel metal waveguides and application to particle acceleration

Conventional metal-wall waveguides support waveguide modes with phase velocities exceeding the speed of light. However, for infrared frequencies and guide dimensions of a fraction of a millimeter, one of the waveguide modes can have a phase velocity equal to or less than the speed of light. Such a metal microchannel then acts as a slow-wave structure. Furthermore, if it is a transverse magnetic mode, the electric field has a component along the direction of propagation. Therefore, a strong exchange of energy can occur between a beam of charged particles and this slow-waveguide mode. Moreover, the energy exchange can be sustained over a distance limited only by the natural damping of the wave. This makes the microchannel metal waveguide an attractive possibility for high-gradient electron laser acceleration because the wave can be directly energized by a long-wavelength laser. Indeed the frequency of CO₂ lasers lies at a fortuitous wavelength that produces a strong laser-particle interaction in a channel of reasonable macroscopic size (e.g., ~0.6 mm). The dispersion properties including phase velocity and damping for the slow wave are developed. The performance and other issues related to laser accelerator applications are discussed.