Published February 2005 | Version v1
Journal article

Acceleration of electrons from rest to GeV energies by ultrashort transverse magnetic laser pulses in free space

  • 1. Departemento de Fisica Aplicada, Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenerios de Minas, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Rios Rosas 21, E-28003 Madrid (Spain)
  • 2. Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser, Universite Laval, Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada G1K 7P4 (Canada)

Description

In this paper we describe a laser acceleration scheme where an electron is accelerated from rest to GeV energies by the longitudinal electric field of an ultrashort transverse magnetic (TM01) optical pulse. The on-axis longitudinal electric field of the pulse is obtained from the free-space divergence equation beyond the so-called slowly-varying-envelope approximation. The instantaneous electron dynamics is studied; numerical simulations predict net energy gains in the GeV range for laser intensities reaching 1022 W/cm2

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. E, Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics
Journal Volume
71
Journal Issue
2
Journal Page Range
p. 026603-026603.10
ISSN
1063-651X
CODEN
PLEEE8

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2005 The American Physical Society