Quantum effects in spontaneous emission by a relativistic, undulating electron beam
Abstract
Current models of the effect of spontaneous emission on the electron beam dynamics neglect the discreteness of electron recoil associated with photon emission. We present a novel, one-dimensional model of the effect of spontaneous emission on the electron beam dynamics in an undulator both in the classical regime where discrete electron recoil is negligible, and the quantum regime where it is significant. It is shown that in the classical regime, continuous decrease of the average electron energy and diffusive growth of the electron energy spread occurs, in agreement with previous classical models. In the quantum regime, it is shown that the evolution of the electron momentum distribution occurs as discrete momentum groups according to a Poisson distribution. The narrow momentum features of the quantum regime may be useful for generation of coherent radiation, which relies on electron beams having sufficiently narrow momentum/energy distributions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1110.6048,
title = {Quantum effects in spontaneous emission by a relativistic, undulating electron beam},
author = {G. R. M. Robb and R. Bonifacio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.6048},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in EPL. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at doi:10.1209/0295-5075/94/34002