Related papers: Reconciling vacuum laser acceleration theory and e…
We use particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and simple analytic models to investigate the laser-plasma interaction known as ponderomotive steepening. When normally incident laser light reflects at the critical surface of a plasma, the…
A laser-driven azimuthal plasma magnetic field is known to facilitate electron energy gain from the irradiating laser pulse. The enhancement is due to changes in the orientation between the laser electric field and electron velocity caused…
Using plasma mirror injection we demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that a circularly polarized helical laser pulse can accelerate highly collimated dense bunches of electrons to several hundred MeV using currently available…
Using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we study the evolution of a strongly magnetized plasma slab propagating into a finite density ambient medium. Like previous work, we find that the slab breaks into discrete magnetic pulses. The…
A reduced Hamiltonian formulation to reproduce the saturated regime of a single pass free electron laser, around perfect tuning, is here discussed. Asymptotically, $N\_m$ particles are found to organize in a dense cluster, that evolves as…
All-optical controlled injection and acceleration of electrons in a laser wakefield has recently been achieved (Faure et al, Nature v. 444 p. 737, 2006). Injection was made using a second counterpropagating laser pulse with the same…
Little is known about the physics frontier of strong acceleration; both classical and quantum physics need further development in order to be able to address this newly accessible area of physics. In this lecture we discuss what strong…
The electron and positron acceleration in the first cycle of a laser-driven wakefield is investigated. Separatrices between different types of the particle motion (confined, reflected by the wakefield or ponderomotive potential and…
The coherent reflectivity of a dense, relativistic, ultra-thin electron layer is derived analytically for an obliquely incident probe beam. Results are obtained by two-fold Lorentz transformation. For the analytical treatment, a plane…
In the early days of quantum mechanics Kapitza and Dirac predicted that matter waves would scatter off the optical intensity grating formed by two counter-propagating light waves [1]. This interaction, driven by the ponderomotive potential…
Intense ultrashort laser pulses propagating through an underdense plasma are able to drive relativistic plasma waves, creating accelerating structures with extreme gradients. These structures represent a new type of compact sources for…
Frequency up-shifting of laser light in a beam-driven plasma wakefield has the potential to provide high-intensity sources of short wavelength radiation. Simulations have demonstrated that a laser pulse can undergo large frequency shifts,…
The behavior of a twisted electron colliding with a linearly polarized laser pulse is investigated within relativistic quantum mechanics. In order to better fit the real experimental conditions, we introduce a Gaussian spatial profile for…
The dynamics of transient electric fields generated by the interaction of high intensity laser pulses with underdense plasmas has been studied experimentally with the proton projection imaging technique. The formation of a charged channel,…
A system of reduced equations is proposed for the electron motion in the strongly-radiation dominated regime for an arbitrary electromagnetic field configuration. The developed approach is used to analyze various scenarios of an electron…
Exploring quantum electrodynamics in the most extreme conditions, where electron-positron pairs can emerge in the presence of a strong background field, is now becoming possible in Compton collisions between ultraintense lasers and…
We explore the physics of electron acceleration in a plasma medium in an effective field theory framework. Employing a multiple Compton scattering mechanism, it is found that the acceleration can be sustained in such a medium so as to…
The goal of this paper is twofold: to explore the response of classical charges to electromagnetic force at the level of unity in natural units and to establish a criterion that determines physical parameters for which the related…
A new scheme for injection and acceleration of electrons in wakefield accelerators is suggested based on the co-action of a laser pulse and an electron beam. This synergy leads to stronger wakefield generation and higher energy gain in the…
Interaction of an electron with the counter-propagating electromagnetic wave is studied theoretically and with the particle-in-cell simulations in the regime of quantum radiation reaction. We find the electron energy in the center of the…