Subluminous phase velocity of a focused laser beam and vacuum laser acceleration

Pang, Jian; Ho, Y. K.; Yuan, Xiao; Cao, N.; Kong, Q.; Wang, P. X.; Shao, Lei; Esarey, E.; Sessler, Andrew M.

doi:10.1103/physreve.66.066501

Cited by 92 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Studies of the electron dynamics in an electromagnetic field are reported in several papers (for example, see [2][3][4][5]). As a rule Gaussian beams are considered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Distribution of Electrons Expelled from Relativistically Intense Laser Beam

Galkin¹,

Egorov

Kalashnikov

et al. 2009

Contrib. Plasma Phys.

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Motions of electrons driven by the fields of relativistically intense laser pulses are studied. The treatment is based on the numerical solution of the relativistic Newton's equation with the Lorentz force. It is demonstrated that an electron can be accelerated by a relativistically intense optical field up to a considerable part of the energy of its oscillation within the pulse. Energy spectra of the electrons scattered by an optical field are used to estimate the absolute value of the laser pulse intensity.

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“…Studies of the electron dynamics in an electromagnetic field are reported in several papers (for example, see [2][3][4][5]). As a rule Gaussian beams are considered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Distribution of Electrons Expelled from Relativistically Intense Laser Beam

Galkin¹,

Egorov

Kalashnikov

et al. 2009

Contrib. Plasma Phys.

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“…Consequently, experimental measurement of the particle energy distribution can serve as an instrument of diagnosing the laser pulse parameters in the focal spot, in particular the maximum intensity. For a focused Gaussian beam several studies of laserdriven electron dynamics have been reported (Hartemann et al, 1995;Pang et al, 2002;Wang et al, 2002;Galkin et al, 2007a;2007b). It was shown that for a certain period of time the electron remains trapped by the laser pulse and moves with it along the pulse propagation axis (Pang et al, 2002;Wang et al, 2002;Galkin et al, 2007b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnostics of peak laser intensity based on the measurement of energy of electrons emitted from laser focal region

Kalashnikov¹,

Andreev

Иванов³

et al. 2015

Laser Part. Beams

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A new method to determine the peak intensity of focused relativistic laser pulses is experimentally justified. It is based on the measurement of spectra of electrons, accelerated in the beam waist. The detected electrons were emitted from the plasma, generated by nonlinear ionization of low-density gases (helium, argon, and krypton) in the focal area of a laser beam with the peak intensity >10 20 W/cm 2 . The measurements revealed generation of particles with the maximum energy of a few MeV, observed at a small angle relative to the beam axis. The results are supported by numerical particle-in-cell simulations of a laser-low-density plasma interaction. The peak intensity in the focal region derived from experimental data reaches the value of 2.5 × 10 20 W/cm 2 .

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“…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.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

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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Subluminous phase velocity of a focused laser beam and vacuum laser acceleration

Cited by 92 publications

References 29 publications

Energy Distribution of Electrons Expelled from Relativistically Intense Laser Beam

Energy Distribution of Electrons Expelled from Relativistically Intense Laser Beam

Diagnostics of peak laser intensity based on the measurement of energy of electrons emitted from laser focal region

Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors

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