Characteristics of laser-driven electron acceleration in vacuum

The interaction of free electrons with intense laser beams in vacuum is studied using a three-dimensional test particle simulation model that solves the relativistic Newton-Lorentz equations of motion in analytically specified laser fields. Recently, a group of solutions was found for very intense laser fields that show interesting and unusual characteristics. In particular, it was found that an electron can be captured within the high-intensity laser region, rather than expelled from it, and the captured electron can be accelerated to GeV energies with acceleration gradients on the order of tens of GeV/cm. This phenomenon is termed the capture and acceleration scenario (CAS) and is studied in detail in this article. The accelerated GeV electron bunch is a macropulse, with duration equal to or less than that of the laser pulse, which is composed of many micropulses that are periodic at the laser frequency. The energy spectrum of the CAS electron bunch is presented. The dependence of the energy exchange in the CAS on various parameters, e.g., a(0) (laser intensity), w(0) (laser radius at focus), tau (laser pulse duration), b(0) (the impact parameter), and theta (i) (the injection angle with respect to the laser propagation direction), are explored in detail. A comparison with diverse theoretical models is also presented, including a classical model based on phase velocities and a quantum model based on nonlinear Compton scattering. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.