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caution: Haven't studied particle accelerator design My understanding of most particle accelerators is that they accelerate their subjects directly with fields
by wolfram74 4y ago
caution: Haven't studied particle accelerator design
My understanding of most particle accelerators is that they accelerate their subjects directly with fields, either oscillating or steady. Wakefield accelerators use a combination of fields (the laser pulse) and other particles (the "stationary" ions). My suspicion is that the ion background introduces enough noise/chaos into the process that it would be a great effort to make the output more monoenergetic and retain total brightness. But I dunno, I always found particle physics a little tedious and didn't pay as much attention as I could have.
- noobermin 4y agoThat is also true, basically target imperfections plus noise in the laser cause imperfection in the acceleration process. Essentially the shape of the bubble can change the accelerating fields uniformity, leading to the divergence and spread issues. They usually cryo their target to minimize just plain chaotic behavior from it being a gas, so generally most of the jitter is due to wings of the laser itself causing perturbations in the gas/plasma (it's a plasma once the peak reaches it). That said, you're totally right about the target itself being a source of noise too.