Electron Acceleration in Direct Laser-Solid Interactions Far Beyond the Ponderomotive Limit

Beyond the ponderomotive limit: Direct laser acceleration of relativistic electrons in sub-critical plasmas

High-energy Laser Ponderomotive Acceleration

A new concept of TeV-range laser ponderomotive acceleration in a plasma is proposed. Particles are accelerated in the point-like scattering by the leading front of the laser pulse, propagating at the group velocity less than the vacuum speed of light. In this scheme, the gain in particle energy is determined by the group velocity and does not depend on laser intensity, which determines the quan...

Spectrally peaked electron beams produced via surface guiding and acceleration in femtosecond laser-solid interactions.

Highly collimated MeV electron beam guiding has been observed along the target surface following the interaction of bulk target irradiation by femtosecond laser pulses at relativistic intensities. The beam quality is shown to depend critically on the laser contrast: With a ns prepulse, the generated electron beam is well concentrated and intense, while a high laser contrast produces divergent e...

Direct Electron Acceleration with Radially Polarized Laser Beams

In the past years, there has been a growing interest in innovative applications of radially polarized laser beams. Among them, the particular field of laser-driven electron acceleration has received much attention. Recent developments in high-power infrared laser sources at the INRS Advanced Laser Light Source (Varennes, Qc, Canada) allowed the experimental observation of a quasi-monoenergetic ...

Nonlinear Shock Acceleration beyond the Bohm Limit

We suggest a physical mechanism whereby the acceleration time of cosmic rays (CRs) by shock waves can be significantly reduced. This creates the possibility of particle acceleration beyond the knee energy at!10 eV. The acceleration results from a nonlinear modification of the flow ahead of the shock supported by particles already accelerated to the kneemomentum at p ! p". The particles gain ene...