Proposed few-optical cycle laser-driven particle accelerator structure

We describe a transparent dielectric grating accelerator structure that is designed for ultrashort laser pulse operation. The structure is based on the principle of periodic field reversal to achieve phase synchronicity for relativistic particles; however, to preserve ultrashort pulse operation it does not resonate the laser field in the vacuum channel. The geometry of the structure appears well suited for application with high average power lasers and high thermal loading. Finally, it shows potential for an unloaded gradient of 10 GeV/m with 10 fs laser pulses and the possibility to accelerate 10⁶ electrons per bunch at an efficiency of 8%. The fabrication procedure and a proposed near term experiment with this accelerator structure are presented.