---
title: "This Tiny Particle Accelerator Fits on a Microchip"
description: "Scientists at Stanford have created a silicon microchip that can act as a particle accelerator — a kind of scientific instrument that usually is far larger."
date: "2020-01-03"
modified: "2020-01-03"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tiny-particle-accelerator-fits-on-microchip"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "cern"
  - "electron"
  - "particle accelerator"
  - "the digest"
---

# This Tiny Particle Accelerator Fits on a Microchip

![Scientists at Stanford have created a silicon microchip that can act as a particle accelerator — a kind of scientific instrument that usually is far larger.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/this-tiny-particle-accelerator-fits-on-a-microchip.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Stanford University\</em\>*

## For Ants

Particle accelerators are usually large. The Large Hadron Collider, for instance, is 17 miles in circumference.

But now a team of scientists at Stanford have created a silicon chip that can act as a particle accelerator — and it's only 30 micrometers long, about the width of a human hair.

## Smallville

On the most basic level, particle accelerators are machines that speed up beams of charged particles using electromagnetic fields.

The new Stanford accelerator is essentially a nanoscale channel made out of silicon, sealed inside a vacuum, which accelerates electrons using an infrared laser pulse.

## Big Chungus

While the device is still a prototype, the team is hoping that similar designs could allow the construction of much smaller particle beam accelerators for use in scientific experiments, foregoing the need for massive facilities like the Large Hadron Collider.

"The largest accelerators are like powerful telescopes," team lead Jelena Vuckovic said in [a statement](<https://phys.org/news/2020-01-particle-chip.html>). "There are only a few in the world and scientists must come to places like \[Stanford facility\] SLAC to use them. We want to miniaturize accelerator technology in a way that makes it a more accessible research tool."

**READ MORE:** [Researchers build a particle accelerator that fits on a chip](<https://phys.org/news/2020-01-particle-chip.html>) \[Stanford University\]

**More on accelerators:** *[Vast New Particle Accelerator Would Dwarf Large Hadron Collider](<https://futurism.com/particle-accelerator-future-circular-collider>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)