Experimental and Numerical Studies of Particle Acceleration by an Active Microwave Medium

79509B The DOE is seeking new techniques for particle acceleration that are cost effective and efficient. This project will develop and verify one such concept, electron acceleration by a fullerene-based active medium. Phase I will investigate the chemistry of fullerenes in liquid crystal matrices. The composition of the materials will be optimized for maximum stored energy through the use of electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. The measurement results will be incorporated into a numerical structure design code, which will be used to design an accelerating structure based on this technology. A test system for the concept will be developed. In Phase II, a device will be constructed to measure the electromagnetic characteristics of these materials, and an experiment will be designed to validate this acceleration technique. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Along with the potential of low-cost, high-gradient electron accelerators, the technology proposed here should extend to ion acceleration (with possible applications to ion implantation and ion microprobes). Another promising spinoff would be the use of the active microwave medium as a low noise tunable microwave amplifier.