Cockcroft Institute scientists Graeme Burt and Laura Corner, from Lancaster University and the University of Liverpool respectively, together with former Cockcroft member Rebecca Seviour, now at the University of Huddersfield, have authored a chapter on accelerators for the book New Waves in Electromagnetic Technology, edited by Andrew Michael Chugg.
The concept for this book, which has come out for sale in April 2025, emerged from a webinar on ‘Electromagnetic Waves: Successfully Surfing the Subject’ that the editor gave on behalf of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in June 2020. The concept was that experts in different areas of electromagnetics would write a chapter about the current and forthcoming trends in their specialities, looking ahead by anything up to a century or more.
Graeme, Laura, and Rebecca rose to the challenge, providing an insightful summary of current developments in advanced particle accelerators, and extrapolating the existing trends in a logical and reasoned fashion to forecast the future technological developments in the field. The advanced accelerators chapter, written by Laura and Graeme along with Prof Rebecca Seviour from the University of Huddersfield, covers mm-wave and THz accelerators, novel superconducting materials and plasma accelerators.
Graeme Burt said “We hope the book will introduce a wider audience into what the next generation of particle accelerators will look like, and the cutting-edge technologies required to achieve these. The book is ideal for graduate physicists and engineers deciding which field to enter for further studies.”
This volume focuses on ten of the most exciting and important areas of technological development involving the field of electromagnetics. Apart from advanced particle accelerators, the book addresses wireless power transfer, magnetic confinements fusion, the applications of metamaterials to improve antennas, lenses and cloaking technologies, powerful superconducting motors, applications of magnetic levitation, electrostatic dissipation in healthcare, electromagnetic propulsion for spacecraft, advances in liquid crystal displays, and technological applications of magnetic monopoles.
New Waves in Electromagnetic Technology is a valuable resource for researchers in the electromagnetics community who are seeking perspectives on the leading edge of scientific thought and a long view on possible future directions in the field.
