  Solid-state based wakefield acceleration of charged particles was previously
proposed to obtain extremely high gradients on the order of 1-10 TeV/m. In
recent years the possibility of using either metallic or carbon nanotube
structures is attracting new attention. The use of carbon nanotubes would allow
us to accelerate and channel particles overcoming many of the limitations of
using natural crystals, e.g. channeling aperture restrictions and
thermal-mechanical robustness issues. In this paper, we propose a potential
proof of concept experiment using carbon nanotube arrays, assuming the beam
parameters and conditions of accelerator facilities already available, such as
CLEAR at CERN and CLARA at Daresbury. The acceleration performance of carbon
nanotube arrays is investigated by using a 2D Particle-In-Cell (PIC) model
based on a multi-hollow plasma. Optimum experimental beam parameters and system
layout are discussed.
