Electron dynamics characteristics in high-intensity laser fields

This paper addresses the conditions under which the vacuum laser acceleration scheme CAS (capture and acceleration scenario), newly proposed by the authors (see, e.g., PX Wang et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 78, 225 3 (200 1)), can be observed. Specifically, the laser intensity threshold (a(0))(th) and the range of the electron incident momentum for the CAS scheme to emerge are examined. We found that (a(0))(th) is critically dependent on the laser beam width omega(0). At komega(0) = 60, (a(0))th = 8, which is an intensity obtainable using present laser systems. The required energy of the incident electron is in the range 5-15 MeV. This study is of significance in designing an experimental setup to test CAS and helpful in understanding the basic physics of CAS.