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Electron acceleration in the wakefield of asymmetric laser pulses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2009

B.-S. Xie*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Beam Technology and Materials Modification of the Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
A. Aimidula
Affiliation:
Department of physics, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, People's Republic of China
J.-S. Niu
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Beam Technology and Materials Modification of the Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
J. Liu
Affiliation:
Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing, People's Republic of China
M.Y. Yu
Affiliation:
Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Bai-Song Xie, Key Laboratory of Beam Technology and Materials Modification of the Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China. E-mail: bsxie@bnu.edu.cn

Abstract

Electron acceleration in the plasma wakefield driven by asymmetric laser pulses is investigated analytically. It is found that the asymmetric laser pulse can significantly modify the phase portrait of the electron dynamics and enhance the maximum energy of the accelerated electrons. There exists an optimum ratio of the lengths of the rising and falling segments of the asymmetric laser-pulse. A linear scaling law relating the accelerated electrons' energy and the plasma density is obtained. This result differs from the power-law dependence often associated with symmetric laser pulses.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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