Electron acceleration by relativistic pondermotive force in the interaction of intense laser pulse with an axially inhomogeneous underdense plasma

Abstract

In this paper, electron acceleration by relativistic pondermotive force has been studied in the interaction of intense laser pulse with an axially inhomogeneous underdense plasma. The results show that the relativistic ponderomotive nonlinearity causes obvious beam self-focusing and a highly energetic electron can be achieved in the plasma, moreover, the high-energy electron would be automatically ejected by the ponderomotive force without adding any additional extractor. In addition, it is found that the real part and imaginary part of Lorentz factor can directly affect the amplitude and change the trend of electron acceleration, and electrons acceleration can be strengthened when we can elect properly the laser intensity with higher momentum and smaller beam width, but nonuniformity of plasmas can slightly decrease the electron acceleration. The results can provide useful physical support for novel design of table accelerator and the optimized parameters of electron acceleration in the plasma.

Effect of mutual interaction of two cosh-Gaussian laser beams on upper hybrid wave excitation and subsequent electron acceleration

“…They have also studied the excitation of UHW and electron acceleration by a Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam in the magnetoplasma in the presence of relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities [25]. Other relevant studies on electron acceleration by intense laser beams in plasma have been reported in the literature [26][27][28].…”