Inverse-Cherenkov Dielectric Laser Accelerator With a Prism-Slab Structure Driven by Single-Side Laser

The dielectric laser accelerator (DLA) based on the inverse Cherenkov effect (ICR) is one of the promising options for developing next-generation desktop or even ON-chip particle accelerators. In order to realize efficient acceleration and to counteract bunch deflection in the tiny-size bunch channel, especially in the subrelativistic region, the available inverse-Cherenkov DLAs exclusively resort to the double-side driven scheme, which uses two identical laser beams to simultaneously and symmetrically drive a mirror dual-prism structure. This complicates the optical system and increases the difficulty of implementation in practice. Here we propose a novel inverse-Cherenkov DLA scheme that uses a single-side laser beam to drive a dielectric prism-slab structure. The laser-induced fields are reflected on both sides of the dielectric slab, which changes the field distribution in the bunch channel. By properly choosing the thickness of the slab and the laser wavelength, the fields in the bunch channel can be symmetrically distributed, which is just like that in the double-driven scheme. So the single-side driven model can realize the same acceleration gradient and focusing effects as the double-driven scheme, which doubles the acceleration efficiency and simplifies the optical system in practice. Detailed theoretical analyses are performed, the results of which are verified by full-field and particle-tracking simulations. This proposed scheme is of significance for developing miniaturized inverse-Cherenkov DLAs.