Abstract
The advancement of the techniques of producing electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz range (1--20 THz) attracts a wide range of potential applications and the quest for powerful THz sources is ever-increasing. The means to generate THz is an active research field and the energy per pulse is limited due to breakdown of the medium used. In this paper, we propose a compact yet powerful narrowband THz source based on two pillars of active research in the field of novel accelerators: laser plasma wakefield acceleration and high gradient dielectric lined structures. The laser plasma wakefield (LPW) injector is used to provide the relativistic electron bunches to an interaction tube, a dielectric lined waveguide (DLW), in order to generate THz. Due to the high gradient nature of both devices, the combination ends up with a very compact solution for mJ scale THz pulse generation. Potentially these pulses can be used as drivers for nonlinear phenomena in condensed matter, which can be probed using ultrashort x-ray pulses at the same free electron laser facility.
Highlights
Electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz (THz) range, which lies between approximately 1 and 20 THz, can interact with matter in several remarkable ways, offering unique opportunities both as a spectroscopic probe or, at higher intensities, as a means to potentially engineer new states of matter [1]
We report on a THz radiator based on an electron beam and dielectric lined waveguide (DLW), a structure similar to that reported in Ref. [11]
We have proposed a possible narrowband and powerful THz generation method for the SwissFEL beamlines where the users can perform THz pump and x-ray probe experiments, which can completely push the potential experiments to a new era
Summary
Electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz (THz) range, which lies between approximately 1 and 20 THz, can interact with matter in several remarkable ways, offering unique opportunities both as a spectroscopic probe or, at higher intensities, as a means to potentially engineer new states of matter [1]. But not limited to the methods based on solid state oscillators [7], plasma dipole oscillators [8], quantum cascaded laser [9], laser pumped solid state devices [10] and electron beam accelerators [11,12] etc Most of these methods generally suffer from low energy per pulse. We aim to investigate the suitability of this method for the high energy THz pulse generation for pump-probe experiments This constrains the DLW structure to be small enough transversely to provide THz pulses in 1–20 THz compared with the predominantly published experimental results, which are normally around hundred GHz. The actual frequency of interest depends on the target users and the radiator should be able to tune over a certain range. We conclude the paper and discuss potential future work
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