Design of a tapered slot waveguide dielectric laser accelerator for sub-relativistic electrons.

We propose a dielectric laser accelerator design based on a tapered slot waveguide structure for sub-relativistic electron acceleration. This tapering scheme allows for straightforward tuning of the phase velocity of the accelerating field along the propagation direction, which is necessary for maintaining synchronization with electrons as their velocities increase. Furthermore, the non-resonant nature of this design allows for better tolerance to experimental errors. We also introduce a method to design this continuously tapered structure based on the eikonal approximation, and give a working example based on realistic experimental parameters.