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Nature Photonics 2, 526–527 (1 September 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.167

Laser wakefields: Bringing accelerators down to size

Toshiki Tajima

The particle accelerator is one of the most successful pieces of apparatus born from twentieth-century science. It has contributed to the discovery of the most fundamental building blocks of matter and helped us to uncover the fascinating physical (and sometimes biological) nature of the world around us.