“Accelerator on a Chip” for Compact X-Ray Devices
November 5, 2013 | Terry Sharrer
This piece reports that physicists at the Department of Energy and Stanford University have demonstrated how lasers, acting upon a nanostructure glass chip that’s smaller than a grain of rice, can generate electrons for x-ray imaging in a table-top device, with efficiency comparable to a linear accelerator. While this is not close to commercial development, it raises possibilities for compact and inexpensive particle accelerators. MORE