Prospects and limitations of cyclotron resonance laser acceleration

The cyclotron resonance laser (CRL) accelerator is a novel concept of accelerating continuous charged-particle beams to moderately or highly relativistic energies. This paper discusses prospects and limitations of this concept. In particular, a three-dimensional, self-consistent theory is used to analyze the nonlinear interaction of an electron beam with an intense traveling electromagnetic wave in such an accelerator. The parameter regimes of experimental interest are identified on the basis of scaling calculations. The results of simulation modeling of a multimegavolt electron CRL accelerator are presented. The possibility of building continuous-wave (cw) CRL accelerators is discussed