Temporary acceleration of electrons while inside an intense electromagnetic pulse
A free electron can temporarily gain a very significant amount of energy if it is overrun by an intense electromagnetic wave. In principle, this process would permit large enhancements in the center-of-mass energy of electron-electron, electron-positron, and electron-photon interactions if these tak...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Physical Society
1999-12-01
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| Series: | Physical Review Special Topics. Accelerators and Beams |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.2.121301 |
| Summary: | A free electron can temporarily gain a very significant amount of energy if it is overrun by an intense electromagnetic wave. In principle, this process would permit large enhancements in the center-of-mass energy of electron-electron, electron-positron, and electron-photon interactions if these take place in the presence of an intense laser beam. Practical considerations severely limit the utility of this concept for contemporary lasers incident on relativistic electrons. A more accessible laboratory phenomenon is electron-positron production via an intense laser beam incident on a gas. Intense electromagnetic pulses of astrophysical origin can lead to very energetic photons via bremsstrahlung of temporarily accelerated electrons. |
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| ISSN: | 1098-4402 |