Reconfigurable Photonic Circuit for Controlled Power Delivery to Laser-Driven Accelerators on a Chip
Tyler W. Hughes, R. J. England, Shanhui Fan · Physical Review Applied · 2019
Laser-driven particle accelerators are a promising avenue for creating tabletop accelerators and light sources, but their functionality is currently limited by a lack of controlled power delivery over a long acceleration length. This work demonstrates that reconfigurable photonic integrated circuits may be used as a control and delivery mechanism for such accelerators. Through the use of integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometers, the authors present a protocol for automatic, dynamic optimization of power delivery, and show that such an approach may enable significant performance enhancements, compared to conventional linear accelerators.