GeV Acceleration In 3 Centimeters

ZonkerWilliam writes, "Here is a very interesting article, for the scientific community at least, on an advancement in laser wakefield particle accelerators. Being able to accelerate electrons to 1 Gev in the space of 3.3 cm calls up visions of portable devices that can be used anywhere: think of portable cancer therapies, if they can do the same for positrons, portable PET scans, possible use in compact fusion devices, capturing the dearly departed, etc. The uses are mind boggling." From the article: "By comparison, SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, boosts electrons to 50 GeV over a distance of two miles... The Berkeley Lab group and their Oxford collaborators... achieve a 50th of SLAC's beam energy in just one-100,000th of SLAC's length." I doubt that this tech will fit on a table top anytime soon. The article quotes the Berkeley researcher: "We believe we can [get to 10 GB] with an accelerator less than a meter long — although we'll probably need 30 meters' worth of laser path."

Comments

Portable TW generator for my Toyota Prius?

[viking80]

This device uses a relative modest 9TW. The submitter suggests some portable applications.

I'll get one of these, throw away the whole electron/laser surf part, and just use the portable 9TW generator in my Toyota Prius.

That should get me from 0 to escape velocity in 1 microsecond.

Re:Power (Have They Got It)

[LWATCDR]

They do but it would be a lot cheaper to move the patient to a hospital near a power grid than try to put one of these at every clinic.
Cancer patients getting radiation treatment need a lot of care. I am not sure that they would have much of a chance of surviving at a local solar powered clinic with an MD and maybe a nurse running the show.
Local clinics need to provide general care. Ideally any seriously ill patent would be transported to a larger care hospital for specialized care.
The money that it would take to provide that level of cancer care locally would be much better spent general care and transportation of special needs patients.
And before any idiot says anything about racism. The exact same thing would apply for a small town in the US or Canada.
I will give you points for a caring but it wouldn't be practical or provide the best benefit for the money.
Now maybe if the could mount it on a bus and use it as a mobile system it could have some value at small hospitals but those would tend to have a at least some kind of power grid.