Abstract
The new generation of short duration lasers provides pulses in excess of the terawatt level, that can be focused up to 1018 W/cm2 [1]. For such an intensity, the quiver motion of a free electron becomes relativistic and numerous new physical effects are expected, such as harmonic generation [2], particle acceleration [3] and relativistic self-focusing [4,5]. In order to observe these effects resulting from laser-electron interaction, a high electron density (Ne) is required. In fact, with regard to the small laser-electron interaction cross-section, a large number of electrons is needed for any significant field emission. Furthermore, using a high density, a collective response of electrons is driven that induces intense longitudinal fields required to accelerate particles. A significant change of the refractive index should also occur that will influence beam propagation if the electron density is large enough.
© 1994 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
B.D. Thompson, A. McPherson, A.B. Borisov, K. Boyer, and C.K. Rhodes
ThB1 Applications of High Field and Short Wavelength Sources (HFSW) 1997
A. B. Borisov, A. McPherson, K. Boyer, and C. K. Rhodes
ThDD.48 OSA Annual Meeting (FIO) 1993
Xiaofang Wang, Wei Yu, Sterling Backus, Margaret Mumane, Henry Kapteyn, and Donald Umstadter
MC2_3 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Pacific Rim (CLEO/PR) 2001