Photon mirror acceleration in the quantum regime

Abstract

Reflection of an electron beam by an intense laser pulse is considered. This is the so-called photon mirror configuration for laser acceleration in vacuum, where the energy of the incident electron beam is nearly double-Doppler shifted due to reflection on the laser pulse front. A wave-electron optical description for electron reflection and resonant backscattering, due to both linear electric field force and quadratic ponderomotive force, is provided beyond the paraxial approximation. This is done by assuming that the single electron of the beam is spin-less and therefore its motion can be described by a quantum scalar field whose spatiotemporal evolution is governed by the Klein-Gordon equation (Klein-Gordon field). Our present model, not only confirms the classical results but also shows the occurrence of purely quantum effects, such as partial reflection of the incident electron beam and enhanced backscattering due to Bragg resonance

Identify spin property of relativistic electrons in fully relativistic laser fields

“…Based on the theoretical analysis, we also propose a feasible experimental setup to identify this effect by exploiting the asymmetric field of single-cycle laser pulses. In future work, we hope to extend our model to study the influence of collective effects on the spin dynamics in laser-plasma interactions [50,51]. This study is of fundamental importance for the spin effects in future fully relativistic laser-plasma experiments and related fields, such as electron vortices, quantum information and quantum spintronics, etc.…”

Photon and electron Landau damping in quantum plasmas

“…Wave propagation in quantum plasma has been considered by several authors in recent years [1][2][3]. This problem can be relevant to different areas, such as laser acceleration [4], laser fusion [5] and astrophysical plasmas [6], where quantum effects in dense plasmas can eventually become relevant. Quantum dispersion effects are indeed relevant to the theory of free electron lasers [7], and to several other aspects of quantum physics associated with intense laser-plasma interactions [8].…”

Nonlinear Laser Driven Donut Wakefields for Positron and Electron Acceleration

“…Raman and Brillouin backscattering [19], and the inverse Faraday effect were then recently examined [20] using higher order lasers in plasmas. Linear wakefield excitation by higher order Laguerre-Gaussian laser pulses was also recently investigated [21]. Nevertheless, the use of lasers with OAM to drive non-linear wakefields for electron and positron acceleration is still unexplored.…”