English

Stern-Gerlach surfing in laser wakefield accelerators

Accelerator Physics 2015-07-14 v1 Plasma Physics

Abstract

We investigate the effects of a Stern-Gerlach-type addition to the Lorentz force on electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator. The Stern-Gerlach-type terms are found to generate a family of trajectories describing electrons that surf along the plasma density wave driven by a laser pulse. Such trajectories could lead to an increase in the size of an electron bunch, which may have implications for attempts to exploit such bunches in future free electron lasers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1503.03149,
  title  = {Stern-Gerlach surfing in laser wakefield accelerators},
  author = {Stephen P. Flood and David A. Burton},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.03149},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

16 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T08:49:31.240Z