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The future is fibre accelerators

Could massive arrays of thousands of fibre lasers be the driving force behind next-generation particle accelerators? The International Coherent Amplification Network project believes so and is currently performing a feasibility study.

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Figure 1: Principle of a coherent amplifier network.

PHIL SAUNDERS

Figure 2: Phase noise spectra of a fibre amplifier unpumped (thin line) and pumped (thick line).
Figure 3: Schematic of an ADR system with fibre front end.

PHIL SAUNDERS

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Correspondence to Bill Brocklesby.

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Mourou, G., Brocklesby, B., Tajima, T. et al. The future is fibre accelerators. Nature Photon 7, 258–261 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.75

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