Electron acceleration by laser fields in a gas

The strong fields lasers can produce allow high energy acceleration of charged particles. As the phase velocity of the fields cannot be made matched in vacuum to the particle velocity, cumulative interaction over arbitrarily long straight trajectories is impossible. However, over limited regions a large energy gain as well as considerable focusing action can be achieved with suitably shaped laser beams. Away from boundaries, all laser fields consist of superpositions of plane wave components. We describe the properties of several practical configurations, beginning with a single plane wave. Only straight particle trajectories are considered in this analysis and it is assumed the energy is large enough so their speed is nearly constant and very close to that of light. The particles considered are electrons. The physical limitation of the interaction region may be obtained by reflecting surfaces which generate no evanescent waves, with the electron beam crossing the boundaries through holes small enough not to disturb the fields. The laser power density over these reflectors could impose a practical limit to field intensity in the interaction region. An alternative way to limit the interaction range is by bending magnets to deflect the electrons; but the energy radiated must then be taken into consideration. In the rest of this paper, no further discussion is given of interaction region boundaries, although they must be present in every case. This paper contains a quantitative analysis of the acceleration and focusing properties of a particular laser configuration, and discusses means of extending the useful interaction range by phase compensation surfaces