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Resonant acceleration of electrons by intense circularly polarized Gaussian laser pulses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

H.Y. Niu*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of China Academy of Engineering Physics, Beijing, People's Republic of China
X.T. He
Affiliation:
Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing, People's Republic of China Center for Applied Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
B. Qiao
Affiliation:
Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing, People's Republic of China Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore
C.T. Zhou
Affiliation:
Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing, People's Republic of China Center for Applied Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: H.Y. Niu, Graduate School of China Academy of Engineering Physics, PO Box 2101 Beijing 100088, People's Republic of China. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Resonant acceleration of plasma electrons in combined circularly polarized Gaussian laser fields and self-generated quasistatic fields has been investigated theoretically and numerically. The latter includes the radial quasistatic electric field, the azimuthal quasistatic magnetic field and the axial one. The resonant condition is theoretically given and numerically testified. The results show some of the resonant electrons are accelerated to velocities larger than the laser group velocity and thus gain high energy. For peak laser intensity I0 = 1 × 1020 W cm−2 and plasma density n0 = 0.1ncr, the relativistic electron beam with energies increased from 207 MeV to 262 MeV with a relative energy width around 24% and extreme low beam divergence less than 1° has been obtained. The effect of laser intensity and plasma density on the final energy gain of resonant electrons is also investigated.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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