Breakthrough for Particle Accelerators

The practical limit on electric field intensity in conventional accelerators is about 30 megavolts per meter (MV/m), about ten times the field intensity that drives lightning strikes. In contrast, the focused light of a table-top terawatt laser can produce electric fields as large as 100 teravolts per meter – about three million times more intense, and in principle allowing a laser-driven collider to reach LHC energies in a distance of about 7 cm (3 in)!

http://www.gizmag.com/first-laser-driven-electron-accelerator-stanford-slac/29297/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=2f607de464-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-2f607de464-91265109

Good article...
As soon as I saw that "grating", my first thought was quantum tunneling.
Very interesting idea using the wavelengths like that. It's somewhat like a pulse engine.
But you should've posted the video, too!

[video=youtube;V89qvy8whxY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V89qvy8whxY[/video]

Well, I forgot...I got so excited, I began designing a new class of Personal Arms based on this chip....I call it a 4 Phase Plasma Rifle in the 40w range.

I first though of the diffraction grate experiment of Heisenberg.

You know, scatter the electrons into Uncertainty?

And then I thought there may be a weird quantum effect they are exploiting. Like each electron on goes thru once but it's acceleration "went through" the 50x gate multiplier?

But I can't even imagine yet, the idea of laser beam generating an LHC particle beam in 7cm.

So, I really cannot imagine what the ding-dong happens in those 7 cm and how does that accelerate electrons???

Also Near Light Speed within 3 inches mean an acceleration that is so massive I could not get a ball park guess for the recoil on my Plasma Rifle.

I mean it isn't the photons, somehow they are accelerating electrons.

Thoughts?

Doer said:

I first though of the diffraction grate experiment of Heisenberg.

You know, scatter the electrons into Uncertainty?

And then I thought there may be a weird quantum effect they are exploiting. Like each electron on goes thru once but it's acceleration "went through" the 50x gate multiplier?

But I can't even imagine yet, the idea of laser beam generating an LHC particle beam in 7cm.

So, I really cannot imagine what the ding-dong happens in those 7 cm and how does that accelerate electrons???

Also Near Light Speed within 3 inches mean an acceleration that is so massive I could not get a ball park guess for the recoil on my Plasma Rifle.

I mean it isn't the photons, somehow they are accelerating electrons.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Try playing with this applet from the textbook Modern Physics by Tipler.
http://bcs.whfreeman.com/tiplerphysics6e/pages/bcs-main.asp?v=chapter&s=35000&n=00020&i=35020.01&o=|00510|00520|00530|00540|00550|00560|00570|00580|00590|00600|00010|00020|00030|00040|01000|02000|03000|04000|05000|06000|07000|08000|09000|10000|R000|11000|12000|13000|14000|15000|16000|17000|18000|19000|20000|21000|22000|23000|24000|25000|26000|27000|28000|29000|30000|31000|32000|33000|34000|35000|36000|37000|38000|39000|40000|41000|99000|&ns=0

Note how the probability of reflection changes with the height of the energy well?
It's hard to see on here, but if you imagine waveforms in space, then it might make more sense.
But that may only help explain the initiation of the accelerator. Plus there are some other effects on wavelength as they pass over those walls in the well.
The part about electric fields and well depth (with the different acceleration values) are straight out of Electrodynamics.
But that initial capture of electrons is still befuddling my tiny mind right now.