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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday November 27 2018, @01:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the smaller-cheaper-faster-pick-two dept.

Submitted via IRC for takyon

Paving the way: an accelerator on a microchip

Particle accelerators are usually large and costly, but that will soon change if researchers have their way. The Accelerator on a Chip International Program (AChIP), funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in the U.S., aims to create an electron accelerator on a silicon chip. The fundamental idea is to replace accelerator parts made of metal with glass or silicon, and to use a laser instead of a microwave generator as an energy source. Due to glass's higher electric field load capacity, the acceleration rate can be increased and thus the same amount of energy can be transmitted to the particles within a shorter space, making the accelerator shorter by a factor of approximately 10 than traditional accelerators delivering the same energy. One of the challenges here is that the vacuum channel for the electrons on a chip has to be made very small, which requires that the electron beam is extremely focused. The magnetic focusing channels used in conventional accelerators are much too weak for this. This means that an entirely new focusing method has to be developed if the accelerator on a chip is to become reality.

As part of TU Darmstadt's Matter and Radiation Science profile area, the AChIP group in accelerator physics (Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at TU Darmstadt), led by the junior scientist Dr. Uwe Niedermayer, recently proposed a decisive solution which calls for using the laser fields themselves to focus the electrons in a channel only 420 nanometres wide. The concept is based on abrupt changes to the phase of the electrons relative to the laser, resulting in alternating focusing and de-focusing in the two directions in the plane of the chip surface. This creates stability in both directions. The concept can be compared to a ball on a saddle – the ball will fall down, regardless of the direction in which the saddle tilts. However, turning the saddle continuously means the ball will remain stable on the saddle. The electrons in the channel on the chip do the same.

Perpendicular to the chip's surface, weaker focusing is sufficient, and a single quadrupole magnet encompassing the entire chip can be used. This concept is similar to that of a conventional linear accelerator. However, for an accelerator on a chip, the electron dynamics have been changed to create a two-dimensional design which can be realised using lithographic techniques from the semiconductor industry.

[...] A particular advantage of this new accelerator technology is that the chips could be produced inexpensively in large numbers, which would mean that the accelerator would be within reach of the man on the street and every university could afford its own accelerator laboratory. Additional opportunities would include the use of inexpensive coherent X-ray beam sources in photolithographic processes in the semiconductor industry, which would make a reduction in transistor size in computer processors possible, along with a greater degree of integration density.


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  • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 27 2018, @03:28AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 27 2018, @03:28AM (#766788)

    Giggling. Bouncing. It was the very picture of childhood innocence, which Little Freddy embodied to a great degree. Now, what had caused Freddy to be so positively ecstatic? He had made a new friend.

    What a joyous occasion, for a child to make a new friend. He could play all sorts of games with his friend and share many precious moments with them. And that is exactly what he was doing. He giggled, bounced, and played a fun game with his new friend. A game of 'privates,' that is.

    The little girl screamed as Freddy smashed his penis deep inside her. However, her screams only caused the boy to become even more excited and violent. As the boy held her down and violated her, he began beating her with a little wooden hammer. Now, the hammer may have been little and wooden, but that doesn't mean it couldn't inflict tremendous pain upon those in its trajectory. Indeed, the little girl learned that all too well.

    The pain she experienced was extraordinary, but so too was the amount of joy Little Freddy extracted from his new friend's suffering. Violated, beaten, and bleeding, the little girl's existence eventually faded into a state of absolute silence. Freddy, disappointed in his new friend's excessive fragility, became furious and beat on the motionless body that he could enjoy no longer. What would he do now? What would Little Freddy do? Just then, he had an idea.

    He would find a new friend. No, he would find several friends, and play 'privates' with them all! Freddy recalled that several little girls lived in a house a few houses away from his own...

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