Electron scattering and acceleration by a tightly focused laser beam

Salamin, Yousef I.; Mocken, Guido R.; Keitel, Christoph H.

doi:10.1103/physrevstab.5.101301

Cited by 97 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…Below, we present a numerical example showing the virtues of our method. We consider a Gaussian beam [13], spatially focused at the origin of the coordinate system, linearly polarized along the x direction, propagating along the positive z direction and with a sin …”

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confidence: 99%

Peak intensity measurement of relativistic lasers via nonlinear Thomson scattering

Har-Shemesh

Piazza

2012

Opt. Lett.

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The measurement of peak laser intensities exceeding 10 20 W/cm 2 is in general a very challenging task. We suggest a simple method to accurately measure such high intensities up to about 10 23 W/cm 2 , by colliding a beam of ultrarelativistic electrons with the laser pulse. The method exploits the high directionality of the radiation emitted by ultrarelativistic electrons via nonlinear Thomson scattering. Initial electron energies well within the reach of laser wake-field accelerators are required, allowing in principle for an all-optical setup. Accuracies of the order of 10% are theoretically envisaged. c 2018 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 190.1900,020.2649 Since the successful application of the chirped pulse amplification technique to generate short laser pulses [1], records in terms of peak intensity are being continuously set. Intensities as high as 2 × 10 22 W/cm 2 have already been reached [2], and much higher ones are envisaged [3], allowing for investigations in different fields including strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED) and plasma physics [4].The analysis of experiments employing ultrarelativistic optical laser pulses, i.e. optical pulses with intensities exceeding 10 20 W/cm 2 , requires the precise knowledge of quantities characterizing the pulse itself such as its peak intensity. However, ultrarelativistic peak intensity measurements are especially difficult because the damage threshold of the equipment is usually far exceeded by such strong laser pulses.To the best of our knowledge, the peak intensity of ultrarelativistic pulses is currently determined by measuring energy, duration and spot-size of the pulse, the latter however at a lower intensity. Therefore, this method is prone to errors since the spot-size can be affected by increasing the pulse intensity [2,5,6]. It is desirable to find precise methods in order to measure directly the peak intensity of the laser field. There are several suggestions for direct in situ measurements of peak intensities by employing multiply-charged ions. The general idea behind these methods is to place ions at the laser focus, with charge number selected according to the expected intensity. Then, by measuring either the photo-ion momentum distribution [7], or the ionization fraction [5,8], one can determine the laser peak intensity. An alternative method is based on the emission of electrons "born" via ionization within the laser pulse [9].In this Letter we suggest a novel method to determine the peak intensity of an ultrarelativistic laser pulse, by measuring the angular aperture of the radiation spectrum emitted via nonlinear Thomson scattering by an ultrarelativistic electron beam colliding head-on with the pulse. The method is practically insensitive to the precise temporal shape of the laser pulse and it allows for singleshot intensity measurements with theoretical accuracies in principle of the order of 10%. Units with c = = 1 and a metric with signature + − −− are employed throughout.Classically it is known that an accelerated ultrarel...

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confidence: 99%

Peak intensity measurement of relativistic lasers via nonlinear Thomson scattering

Har-Shemesh

Piazza

2012

Opt. Lett.

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“…In general it is hard to satisfy (20) since ψ is a function of (x, y, z) and g is a function of the phase η. To proceed we begin by rescaling our coordinates…”

Section: B Description Of the Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiation damping in pulsed Gaussian beams

Harvey

Marklund

2012

Phys. Rev. A

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We consider the effects of radiation damping on the electron dynamics in a Gaussian beam model of a laser field. For high intensities, i.e. with dimensionless intensity a 0 1, it is found that the dynamics divide into three regimes. For low energy electrons (low initial γ-factor, γ 0 ) the radiation damping effects are negligible. At higher energies, but still at 2γ 0 < a 0 , the damping alters the final displacement and the net energy change of the electron. For 2γ 0 > a 0 one is in a regime of radiation reaction induced electron capture. This capture is found to be stable with respect to the spatial properties of the electron beam and results in a significant energy loss of the electrons. In this regime the plane wave model of the laser field provides a good description of the dynamics, whereas for lower energies the Gaussian beam and plane wave models differ significantly. Finally the dynamics are considered for the case of an XFEL field. It is found that the significantly lower intensities of such fields inhibits the damping effects.

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“…(13) seem to be most relevant, as 2 w 0 Ω ≈ 1 3.93 surpasses all the other dimensionless ratios parameterizing neglected contributions in magnitude. [37,45,46]. Of course, for less tight focusing such as, e.g., w 0 = 3 µm ≈ 15.21 eV −1 , and thereby a substantially reduced peak intensity (B1) in the beam focus, this ratio becomes smaller, and thus the paraxial approximation more justified.…”

Section: Photon Polarization Tensor In Laguerre-and Hermite-gaussmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sec. III below) [37], the associated spatio-temporally varying electric and magnetic fields are given by E = Eˆ e E and B = Eˆ e B , i.e., are described by the single amplitude profile E. The unit vectors introduced here fulfillˆ e E ·ˆ e B =ˆ e E ·ˆ e κ =ˆ e B ·ˆ e κ = 0 as well asˆ e E ×ˆ e B =ˆ e κ , such that F = G = 0.…”

Section: Theoretical Foundationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photon polarization tensor in pulsed Hermite- and Laguerre-Gaussian beams

Karbstein

Mosman

2017

Phys. Rev. D

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In this article, we provide analytical expressions for the photon polarization tensor in pulsed Hermite-and Laguerre-Gaussian laser beams. Our results are based on a locally constant field approximation of the one-loop Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangian for quantum electrodynamics.Hence, by construction they are limited to slowly varying electromagnetic fields, varying on spatial and temporal scales significantly larger than the Compton wavelength/time of the electron. The latter criterion is fulfilled by all laser beams currently available in the laboratory. Our findings will, e.g., be relevant for the study of vacuum birefringence experienced by probe photons brought into collision with a high-intensity laser pulse which can be represented as a superposition of either Hermite-or Laguerre-Gaussian modes. * Electronic address: felix.karbstein@uni-jena.de † Electronic address: mosmanea@tpu.ru

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Electron scattering and acceleration by a tightly focused laser beam

Cited by 97 publications

References 30 publications

Peak intensity measurement of relativistic lasers via nonlinear Thomson scattering

Peak intensity measurement of relativistic lasers via nonlinear Thomson scattering

Radiation damping in pulsed Gaussian beams

Photon polarization tensor in pulsed Hermite- and Laguerre-Gaussian beams

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