Particle Accelerator Fits On the Head of a Pin (techcrunch.com) 22
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: "We want to miniaturize accelerator technology in a way that makes it a more accessible research tool," explained project lead Jelena Vuckovic in a Stanford news release. But this wasn't designed like a traditional particle accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider or one at collaborator SLAC's National Accelerator Laboratory. Instead of engineering it from the bottom up, they fed their requirements to an "inverse design algorithm" that produced the kind of energy pattern they needed from the infrared radiation emitters they wanted to use. That's partly because infrared radiation has a much shorter wavelength than something like microwaves, meaning the mechanisms themselves can be made much smaller -- perhaps too small to adequately design the ordinary way. The algorithm's solution to the team's requirements led to an unusual structure that looks more like a Rorschach test than a particle accelerator. But these blobs and channels are precisely contoured to guide infrared laser light pulse in such a way that they push electrons along the center up to a significant proportion of the speed of light.
The resulting "accelerator on a chip" is only a few dozen microns across, making it comfortably smaller than a human hair and more than possible to stack a few on the head of a pin. A couple thousand of them, really. And it will take a couple thousand to get the electrons up to the energy levels needed to be useful -- but don't worry, that's all part of the plan. The chips are fully integrated but can be put in a series easily to create longer assemblies that produce larger powers. These won't be rivaling macro-size accelerators like SLAC's or the Large Hadron Collider, but they could be much more useful for research and clinical applications where planet-destroying power levels aren't required. For instance, a chip-sized electron accelerator might be able to direct radiation into a tumor surgically rather than through the skin. The findings have been published in the journal Science.
The resulting "accelerator on a chip" is only a few dozen microns across, making it comfortably smaller than a human hair and more than possible to stack a few on the head of a pin. A couple thousand of them, really. And it will take a couple thousand to get the electrons up to the energy levels needed to be useful -- but don't worry, that's all part of the plan. The chips are fully integrated but can be put in a series easily to create longer assemblies that produce larger powers. These won't be rivaling macro-size accelerators like SLAC's or the Large Hadron Collider, but they could be much more useful for research and clinical applications where planet-destroying power levels aren't required. For instance, a chip-sized electron accelerator might be able to direct radiation into a tumor surgically rather than through the skin. The findings have been published in the journal Science.
The problem is really going to be getting enough (Score:2)
You need a lot of particles to get good results. Sure, you can accelerate something really really fast, but unless you've got enough events to gather useful data, it's not helpful.
Re: (Score:3)
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In terms of particle physics you're likely correct, and largely the same thing applies to the up-and-coming plasma wakefield accelerators with my limited understanding. There are many other uses for compact accelerators though: material analysis, material processing, biomedical, etc. I could see this being used for tiny x-ray flourescence analyzers etc.
More Voltage! (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Dance, angels! Dance!
To quote Scotty: (Score:2)
"A starship engine the size of a walnut!"
Everything Killers (Score:1)
Oh, so the everything killers from Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" are now a reality?
Can is accelerate protons? (Score:4, Funny)
Can I fit it in a backpack? And does it require a license?
Caution advised. (Score:2)
Blaster Pistols... (Score:1)
Cool. Particle blaster pistols coming soon.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd like a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.
Inverse Magnatron (Score:1)
Seriously, this looks like a magneton laid out linearly with similar channels. The description sounds like it uses electromagnetic radiation (IR frequencies) to accelerate electrons. This is the reverse of how a standard magnetron operates where it use accelerating electrons to generate electromagnetic radiation (microwaves). Is there a cross magnetic field involved with this device?
Re: (Score:2)
You could do it at nano scale, create a torus with an internal scaley surface with the scales in one direction, molecular layered scales with a definitive charge at the exposed end and then inject appropriate charged particles into the nano torus and they must spin and charge up the nano torus, so you can inject more charged particles in the would be a molecular limit on how much stress the molecular bonds could tolerate. Motion is inherent in all normal space particles, when they stop moving the effectivel
Finally (Score:2)
A pinhead article posted by a pinhead.
It fits as well.
More accesible ? I built a 1MeV accelerator in HS (Score:2)
You can too, here's the plans I worked from
https://archive.org/details/Th... [archive.org]
The bill of goods was something like 200 bucks when I built it, no idea in today's dollars. Whats more it's large enough you can actually get a large enough beam for interesting work and are able to place targets in convenient places. The size also makes detectors much easier to use with it.
There's also the question of just how much more accessible .this makes things. You are still going to need a good vacuum to get anything done.
now do it with sound (Score:1)
One particle accellerator per child (Score:2)
Finally, the dream of bringing real science to the children of third world countries may be coming true. The key to success of this project is to bring the cost down to below 50 dollars a pop. The particle accelerator lab also must have a crank generator because of limited access to electric grid.
Micro thruster? (Score:2)
If a particle accelerator can be modified to fire something larger, like protons or heavier ions to relativistic speeds, perhaps we have a workable electric thruster of high efficiency?
This will become one *nasty* weapon. (Score:2)
Imagine a pistol with that tech. Or, hell, a small sphere suitable for being eaten accidentially. As long as the energy it can store is enough to shoot a hole through you â¦
Or a gamma ray grenade ...
I'm sure we'll get a movie where that is explored.