Table-top particle accelerator sets world record (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by Theresa , Tuesday, January 06, 2015, 12:53

Using a small, inches-long device, researchers have accelerated subatomic particles to the highest energies ever recorded from a compact particle accelerator. With further development, the Berkeley Lab researchers believe they can shrink traditional, miles-long accelerators to machines that can fit on a table.

The researchers sped up the electrons inside a nine-centimeter (4 inch) long tube of plasma to an energy of 4.25 giga-electron volts. The acceleration over such a short distance corresponds to an energy gradient 1,000 times greater than traditional particle accelerators and marks a world record energy for laser-plasma accelerators.

"This result requires exquisite control over the laser and the plasma," says Berkeley Lab's Wim Leemans, lead author on a paper describing the table-top accelerator in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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