  A laser-driven particle accelerator based on plasmonic nano-antennas is
proposed and analyzed. The concept utilizes the enhancement and localization of
the electric field by nano-antennas to maximize the acceleration gradient and
to overcome potential metallic losses. The structure is optimized for
accelerating relativistic particles using a femto-second laser source operating
at 800nm, and is shown to support the bandwidth of ultra-short laser pulses (up
to 16fsec) while providing a high acceleration gradient potentially reaching
11.6GV/m.
