Abstract. Using 3D test particle simulations, the characteristics and essential conditions under which an electron, in a vacuum laser beam, can undergo a capture and acceleration scenario (CAS). When 0 a 100 the electron can be captured and violently accelerated to energies 1 GeV, with an acceleration gradient 10 GeV/cm, where

Abstract. It has been found that for a focused laser beam propagating in free-space, there exists, surrounding the laser beam axis, a subluminous wave phase velocity region.Relativistic electrons injected into this region can be trapped in the acceleration phase and remain in phase with the laser field for sufficiently long times, thereby receiving considerable energy from the field. Optics placed near the laser focus are not necessary, thus allowing high intensities and large energy gains. Important features of this process are examined via test particle simulations. The resulting energy gains are in agreement with theoretical estimates based on acceleration by the axial laser field.

A scheme for a random number generator based on the intrinsic randomness of quantum mechanics is proposed. A Fresnel multiple prism which can act as a perfect 50∕50 beam splitter is used to realize the random events by choosing single photons from a polarized laser beam. A procedure to get rid of the bias of the raw sequences is discussed in detail together with the random number generation efficiency per light pulse.