Dielectric laser acceleration of electrons close to a fused-silica grating
has recently been observed (Peralta et al., Nature 503, 91 (2013); Breuer,
Hommelhoff, PRL 111, 134803 (2013)). Here we present the theoretical
description of the near-fields close to such a grating that can be utilized to
accelerate non-relativistic electrons. We also show simulation results of
electrons interacting with such fields in a single and double grating structure
geometry and discuss dephasing effects that have to be taken into account when
designing a photonic-structure-based accelerator for non-relativistic
electrons. We further model the space charge effect using the paraxial ray
equation and discuss the resulting expected peak currents for various parameter
sets.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
