Abstract
We report the simulation and fabrication of a single‐stage and a multistage CO2 laser‐driven particle accelerator with macroscopic dimensions suitable for conducting proof‐of‐principle laser‐driven acceleration experiments in a vacuum. The single‐stage copper accelerator structure, having a 300‐μm electron transit aperture, is 10 cm long and provides 210 keV electron energy gain. The multistage structure consists of 16 ZnSe lenses with 1.5 cm separation between adjacent lenses. The energy gain over the 24‐cm distance is 250 keV for a 200‐μm electron transit aperture. This resonant structure is suitable for studying beam loading, mode excitation, and phase synchronization among accelerator stages