Related papers: Optimizing direct laser-driven electron accelerati…
A detailed study of direct laser-driven electron acceleration in paraxial Laguerre-Gaussian modes corresponding to helical beams $\text{LG}_{0m}$ with azimuthal modes $m=\left\{1,2,3,4,5\right\}$ is presented. Due to the difference between…
We study the direct acceleration of a free electron in infinite vacuum along the axis of a pulsed radially-polarized laser beam. We find that net energy transfer from laser pulse to electron is maximized with the tightest focusing. We show…
Exact closed-form solutions to Maxwell's equations are used to investigate the acceleration of electrons in vacuum driven by ultrashort and nonparaxial radially polarized laser pulses. We show that the threshold power above which…
An experimental study of laser driven electron acceleration in N2 and N2-He mixed gas-jet target using laser pulses of duration ~60-70 fs is presented. Generation of relativistic electron beam with quasi-thermal spectra was observed at a…
Recent studies have demonstrated the possibility of accelerating electrons to MeV energies in ambient air using tightly focused laser configurations. In this article, we explore possible strategies to control and optimize the resulting…
We use Bayesian optimization in combination with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to determine the optimal laser and plasma parameters that, for a given laser pulse energy, maximize the cut-off energy of an electron beam…
Exact closed-form solutions to Maxwell's equations are used to investigate electron acceleration driven by radially polarized laser beams in the nonparaxial and ultrashort pulse regime. Besides allowing for higher energy gains, such beams…
We consider the acceleration of electrons in vacuum by means of the circularly-polirized electromagnetic wave, propagating along a magnetic field. We show that the electron energy growth, when using ultra-short and ultra-intense laser…
Single MeV electrons subjected in vacuum to single high-intensity quadratically-chirped laser pulses are shown to gain multi-GeV energies. The laser pulses are modeled by finite-duration trapezoidal and $\cos^2$ pulse-shapes and the…
Acceleration of electrons in vacuum directly by intense laser fields, often termed vacuum laser acceleration (VLA), holds great promise for the creation of compact sources of high-charge, ultrashort, relativistic electron bunches. However,…
An experimental investigation on laser plasma acceleration of electrons has been carried out using 3 TW, 45 fs duration titanium sapphire laser pulse interaction with nitrogen gas jet at intensity of 2x10^18 W/cm^2. We have observed stable…
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…
A linearly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian (LP-LG) laser beam with a twist index $l = -1$ has field structure that fundamentally differs from the field structure of a conventional linearly polarized Gaussian beam. Close to the axis of the LP-LG…
We revisit the matching conditions for self-guided laser pulse propagation in plasma and refine their formulation to maximize the energy of electrons produced via laser wakefield acceleration. Bayesian optimization, combined with…
We examine the impact of several factors on electron acceleration by a laser pulse and the resulting electron energy gain. Specifically, we consider the role played by: 1) static longitudinal electric field; 2) static transverse electric…
In laser-solid interactions, electrons may be generated and subsequently accelerated to energies of the order-of-magnitude of the ponderomotive limit, with the underlying process dominated by direct laser acceleration. Breaking this limit,…
The paper reports the results of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of proton beam acceleration at the interactions of a 130 fs laser pulse of intensity from the range of 10^21-10^23 W/cm^2, predicted for the Extreme Light…
We present an analytical theory that reveals the importance of the longitudinal laser electric field in the resonant acceleration of relativistic electrons by the tightly confined laser beam. It is shown that this field always counterworks…
Experimental measurements using the OMEGA EP laser facility demonstrated direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electron beams to (505 $\pm$ 75) MeV with (140 $\pm$ 30)~nC of charge from a low-density plasma target using a 400 J, picosecond…
Direct laser acceleration has proven to be an efficient source of high-charge electron bunches and high brilliance X-rays. However, an analytical description of the acceleration in the interaction with varying plasma density targets is…