Hi,
Based on the recently reported linear particle "accelerator on a chip":
I was thinking about how this could be turned into a circular particle accelerator instead of a linear accelerator. The linear version seems to use a glass (or other transparent insulator) with small cogs in it proportional to the accelerating radiation frequency, so for making a circular accelerator, it would require this to be a circular gear type shape, like a change shown in this image from a linear gear to a circular gear:
For the material used I was thinking a scintillator crystal could be used that is energized from the center point of the "gear axle" so that all "teeth" that accelerate the particles will be in phase. There are other ways to do this, ie with multiple fiber lasers going to gear teeth sections too.
Now the electrons will be accelerating, but the problem is they will want to travel in a straight line, so the gear needs some holding force to keep them in a circular motion!! At first I was thinking maybe an adjustable DC bias voltage could be used to hold the particle beam while it is rotating, but depending on the feedback for the voltage I'm not sure if this would work?
A simpler new idea I had was to use a different gear tooth design that automatically will hold the particle beam while it travels around the circular gear.
This type of herringbone gear design could provide an axial holding force on the particle beam:
This other design of herringbone could provide a radial holding force on the particle beam:
And for a combined axial+radial holding force on the particle beam, it is possible to "bend" the already triangular herringbone shape into a compound triangle shape so that there is radial and axial holding force.
Now when the gear teeth are energized by a laser and the electric field on them should be able to accelerate the particles and also hold the particle beam in a focused circular beam at the same time I think!
cheers, Jamie