A team of scientists from Stanford University have developed a new particle accelerator, is so tiny that it fits on a human hair. We’ve learned that particle accelerators are gigantic complex installations (for example, the length of the shaft of the Large hadron Collider – more than 26 km). And here is the design with a total length of 30 µm, which allows you to accelerate particles up to 94% the speed of light.
The new accelerator has a channel of nanometer size silicon, clad in an insulating sheath of the vacuum. With the help of infrared laser to the electrons in the channel of the transmitted impulse, which forces them to accelerate. The process is repeated many times, whereby particles gain tremendous speed.
The main advantage of developing such an accelerator is very compact, and the area of destruction of the target is almost symbolic. That gives hope for the accelerator application for delicate operations like impact on cancer. Although the machine and produces 1 million electron volts, it is much easier to maintain and safer than its huge cousins.
Source — Stanford University