A team of researchers has developed the first prototype of a miniature particle accelerator, which uses terahertz waves instead of radio frequencies. A single accelerator module is just 1 centimeters in size, and a millimeter thin. Terahertz technology could allow the miniaturization of the entire apparatus: this is the objective of the group led by Franz Kärtner, of the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science.
The prototype was presented with a article in the newspaper scientific Nature.
The author hypothesizes numerous fields of application of Terahertz accelerators: medicine and particle physics above all.
What is Terahertz wave?
Also called T-ray, it is an electromagnetic radiation that has a spectrum between 300 GHz and 3 THz. In the electromagnetic spectrum it is just a sort of middle ground between infrared and microwaves. It is not visible to the human eye, having a longer wavelength than we can perceive. Kärtner, who is also Professor at the University of Hamburg and member of the Hamburg Center for Ultrafast Imaging (one of the centers of excellence Germans on the subject) used this much "shorter" frequency than the one traditionally adopted, noting the advantage of being able to reduce the entire system.
The prototype is working, a single module has produced an increase in the energy of the electrons quantifiable in 7 keV (kiloelectronvolts). According to scientists this result could lead to implants capable of producing an increase of up to 20 MeV (megaelectronvolts), i.e. 20 times more powerful than current accelerators.
And now the LHC in Geneva already seems to me to be the equivalent of the old computers that filled an entire room.
