Side-coupled slab-symmetric structure for high-gradient acceleration using terahertz power

A slab-symmetric dielectric-loaded accelerator structure, consisting of a vacuum gap between dielectric-lined conducting walls, is described. The device is resonantly excited by an external drive laser which is side coupled into the acceleration region; a novel coupling scheme, which consists of an array of narrow, equally spaced slots in the upper structure boundary, is presented and analyzed in detail. This structure partakes of the advantages of earlier slab-symmetric optical acceleration proposals, but will use a terahertz-frequency external radiation source (lambda = 340 mu m), allowing realistic electron beams to be used in a proof-of-principle experiment. Two- and three-dimensional electromagnetic simulations are used to verify the mode patterns and study the effects of the couplers, including time-dependent calculations of the filling of the structure and particle-in-cell computations of the beam wakefields. Details of the resonance are found to be highly sensitive to the coupling slot geometry: the presence of the couplers can lead to frequency detuning, changes in the field breakdown limits and overall Q factor, and distortions of the field pattern. Beam wakefields are enhanced by the presence of the slots, but found to have no significant effect on the beam transport. The resonant accelerating fields, which are nearly constant along the short transverse direction, are found to have between 10 and 15 times the amplitude of the driving radiation, with only a small (<10%) admixture of other nonaccelerating modes. Field gradients are computed to be near 100 MV/m when the structure is driven with 100 MW of terahertz laser power. Possible manufacturing methods for a prototype device are discussed.