Longitudinal field components for laser beams in vacuum

Cicchitelli, L.; Hora, Heinrich; Postle, R.

doi:10.1103/physreva.41.3727

Cited by 198 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…To properly model the ponderomotive force [22,42], a first-order development with respect to the parameter = 1/kw 0 is used in order to insure that the laser field satisfy Maxwell's equations, at least to the first order of . This introduces new components B z and E z , proportional to .…”

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors

et al. 2015

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Accelerating particles to relativistic energies over very short distances using lasers has been a long standing goal in physics. Among the various schemes proposed for electrons, vacuum laser acceleration has attracted considerable interest and has been extensively studied theoretically because of its appealing simplicity: electrons interact with an intense laser field in vacuum and can be continuously accelerated, provided they remain at a given phase of the field until they escape the laser beam. But demonstrating this effect experimentally has proved extremely challenging, as it imposes stringent requirements on the conditions of injection of electrons in the laser field. Here, we solve this long-standing experimental problem for the first time by using a plasma mirror to inject electrons in an ultraintense laser field, and obtain clear evidence of vacuum laser acceleration.With the advent of PetaWatt class lasers, this scheme could provide a competitive source of very high charge (nC) and ultrashort relativistic electron beams.1 arXiv:1511.05936v1 [physics.plasm-ph] 18 Nov 2015Femtosecond lasers currently achieve light intensities at focus that far exceed 10 18 W/cm 2 at near infrared wavelengths [1]. One of the great prospects of these extreme intensities is the laser-driven acceleration of electrons to relativistic energies within very short distances.At present, the most advanced scheme consists of using ultraintense laser pulses to excite large amplitude wakefields in underdense plasmas, providing extremely high accelerating gradients in the order of 100 GV/m [2]. However, over the past decades, the direct acceleration of electrons by light in vacuum has also attracted considerable interest and has been extensively studied theoretically [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. These investigations have been driven by the fundamental interest of this most elementary interaction, and by its potential for extreme electron acceleration through electric fields of > 10's TV/m that ultraintense laser pulses provide.The underlying idea is to inject free electrons into an ultraintense laser field so that they always remain within a given half optical cycle of the field, where they constantly gain energy until they leave the focal volume. 1D Analytical calculations [3] show that for relativistic electrons, the maximum energy gain from this process is ∆E ∝ mc 2 γ 0 a 2 0 , where γ 0 is the electron initial Lorentz factor, and a 0 is the normalized laser vector potential, m the electron mass, and c the vacuum light velocity. Reaching high energy gains thus requires high initial energies γ 0 1 and/or ultrahigh laser amplitudes (a 0 1).In contrast with the large body of theoretical work published on this vacuum laser acceleration (VLA) of electrons to relativistic energies, experimental observations have largely remained elusive [12][13][14][15][16][17] -sometimes even controversial [18,19]-and have so far not demonstrated significant energy gains. This is because VLA occurs efficiently only for electrons injected in t...

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Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors

et al. 2015

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“…Third and finally, the longitudinal electric field component takes over and provides a final extra push. Although the amplitude of the longitudinal component is usually tiny (∝ E 0 λ 0 /w 0 ), including it into calculations changes the result from vanishingly small to considerable acceleration [54,55,57]. This can be explained by the fact that an electron moving longitudinally can possibly stay in phase with the longitudinal electric field over longer distances.…”

Section: Regime a 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Closed-form solutions can generally be obtained via integral (spectral) methods: by direct Fourier and Hankel transforms [55,99,100] or through angular spectrum decomposition [47,57,101]. Very elegant solutions were also obtained using the complex source-point model [25,31].…”

Section: B Modelling Tightly Focused Ultrafast Laser Beams In Vacuummentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct Electron Acceleration with Radially Polarized Laser Beams

et al. 2013

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In the past years, there has been a growing interest in innovative applications of radially polarized laser beams. Among them, the particular field of laser-driven electron acceleration has received much attention. Recent developments in high-power infrared laser sources at the INRS Advanced Laser Light Source (Varennes, Qc, Canada) allowed the experimental observation of a quasi-monoenergetic 23-keV electron beam produced by a radially polarized laser pulse tightly focused into a low density gas. Theoretical analyses suggest that the production of collimated attosecond electron pulses is within reach of the actual technology. Such an ultrashort electron pulse source would be a unique tool for fundamental and applied research. In this paper, we propose an overview of this emerging topic and expose some of the challenges to meet in the future.

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“…The small longitudinal component of E, which is always present in finite size beams can be neglected [Cicchitelli et al, 1990] in the paraxial approximation, which is adopted in the present paper. [14] The electric vector E may be expressed as…”

Section: Propagation Of the Electromagnetic Pulsed Beam In The Ionospmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐focusing of an electromagnetic pulse in the ionosphere

Faisal

Bhasin

Sodha³

2009

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] In this paper, the self-focusing of electromagnetic pulsed beams having Gaussian and sine profiles in the ionosphere have been studied. The self-focusing of an electromagnetic pulse is caused by the nonlinearity in the dielectric function caused by the nonuniform distribution of electron temperature, determined by the Ohmic heating, solar radiation and energy loss in collisions with ions and neutrals. The radial distribution of the electron temperature causes a radial distribution of electron density and thereby that of the refractive index, which causes self-focusing. The wave frequency has been assumed to be much larger than the electron collision frequency, and the temperature of the ions has been assumed to be equal to the temperature of neutrals; this assumption is justified in the ionosphere up to a height of 400 km. In the analysis, the electromagnetic wave equation and the energy balance equation has been solved simultaneously to obtain ordinary differential equations governing the beam width parameter and the electron temperature (on and away from the axis), respectively, in the paraxial approximation. For computations, the database for the midlatitude daytime ionosphere at the height of 150 km, compiled by Gurevich (1978), has been used. The transient behavior of the electron temperature (on and away from the axis) has been graphically presented for different values of pulse widths. The dependence of the beam width parameter on the distance of propagation for different times of retardation has also been plotted and discussed.

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Longitudinal field components for laser beams in vacuum

Cited by 198 publications

References 24 publications

Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors

Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors

Direct Electron Acceleration with Radially Polarized Laser Beams

Self‐focusing of an electromagnetic pulse in the ionosphere

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