Laser acceleration with open waveguides

A unified framework based on solid-state open waveguides is developed to overcome all three major limitations on acceleration distance and hence on the feasibility of two classes of laser acceleration. The three limitations are due to laser diffraction, acceleration phase slippage, and damage of waveguide structure by a high power laser. The two classes of laser acceleration are direct-field acceleration and ponderomotive-driven acceleration. Thus the solutions provided here encompass all mainstream approaches for laser acceleration, either in vacuum, gases or plasmas