Theory and simulation of the interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with electrons in vacuum

Quesnel, B.; Mora, P.

doi:10.1103/physreve.58.3719

Cited by 336 publications

(283 citation statements)

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“…To study the subsequent interaction of these electrons with the laser field in vacuum, we turn to a simple 3D test particle model, similar to the one used in [22] (see Methods). In this model, the relativistic equations of motion are solved for electrons injected in a sinusoidal laser field, assumed to be Gaussian in space and time, and known analytically at every time and position.…”

Section: Modeling Of the Experimental Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A derivation of these fields can be found in Ref. [22]. Omitting these components leads to incorrect trajectories (as in [12,30]), by artificially restricting all forces to the polarization plane.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…When averaged over several cycles, this typically results in a drift motion where electrons are isotropically expelled away from high intensity regions, an effect which can be accounted for by the relativistic ponderomotive force [20][21][22].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, in order to stay in phase with the laser field, electrons need to have initial velocities close to c along the laser propagation axis. In addition, they should start interacting with the intense laser beam already close to its spatial and temporal maxima, and even be injected at appropriate phases of this field.Electrons that do not satisfy these stringent requirements tend to explore many different optical cycles as they interact with the laser field, leading to an oscillatory motion where they are successively accelerated and decelerated, so that their final energy gain is low.When averaged over several cycles, this typically results in a drift motion where electrons are isotropically expelled away from high intensity regions, an effect which can be accounted 2 for by the relativistic ponderomotive force [20][21][22].Here, we present clear evidence of vacuum laser acceleration of bunches of ∼ 10 10 electrons, corresponding to charges in the nC range, up to relativistic energies around 10 MeV.Our experimental results clearly discriminate for the first time electrons that have experienced a quasi-monotonic sub-laser-cycle acceleration, from those whose dynamics has mostly been determined by ponderomotive scattering. To solve the long-standing experimental problem of electron injection in the laser field, we demonstrate a new approach based on the use of plasma mirrors [23], that specularly reflect ultraintense laser fields while simultaneously injecting relativistic electrons in the core of these reflected fields, co-linearly to the propagation direction.…”

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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: Modeling Of the Experimental Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors

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“…The fully relativistic discussion delivers an additional factor (1/ γ ) where γ is the relativistic factor γ averaged over the fast oscillations [26]:…”

Section: Ponderomotive Forcementioning

confidence: 99%

Investigations of Field Dynamics in Laser Plasmas with Proton Imaging

Sokollik

2011

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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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Theory and simulation of the interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with electrons in vacuum

Cited by 336 publications

References 28 publications

Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors

Vacuum laser acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma mirror injectors

Investigations of Field Dynamics in Laser Plasmas with Proton Imaging

Energy Distribution of Electrons Expelled from Relativistically Intense Laser Beam

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