Dielectric laser acceleration of nonrelativistic electrons at a single fused silica grating structure: Experimental part

Abstract

Recently, our group has demonstrated dielectric laser acceleration of nonrelativistic electrons at a scalable fused silica grating [J. Breuer and P. Hommelhoff, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 134803 (2013)]. This represents a demonstration of the inverse Smith-Purcell effect in the optical regime. The third spatial harmonic of the grating, which is excited by Titanium:sapphire laser pulses, synchronously accelerates 28 keV electrons derived from an electron microscope column. We observe a maximum acceleration gradient of 25 MeV/m. Here we present the experimental setup in detail. We describe grating-related issues such as surface charging and alignment as well as damage threshold measurements. A detailed explanation of the detection scheme is given. Furthermore, extensive numerical simulations are discussed, which agree well with the experimental results.