Dynamic superposition of laser fields for acceleration of ions and of electrons up to TeV/cm gain

Abstract

With the aim to provide more economic systems for acceleration of electrons, the possibilities of laser accelerators are discussed. The driving of electrons in laser wave fields in a longitudinal direction is based on nonlinear forces, which in simplified form cause the ponderomotion. Since the formulation of the Sessler theorem it is evident that optical signals moving with the speed of light in vacuum may not transfer energy to charged particles. A slowing down-even for a very minor difference only-does result in acceleration. Since the beat-wave accelerator using plasma led to numerous problems, a scheme is proposed that works without such dielectric effects by the superposition of laser wave fields in vacuum. Then the reduction of the signal velocity is performed by a controlled time dependence of the frequency with a phase or direction of at least one of the laser beams in interference.