Generation of 'Super-Ponderomotive' Electrons due to a non-Wakefield interaction between a Laser Pulse and a Longitudinal Electric Field

Abstract

It is shown that electrons with momenta exceeding the `free electron' limit of $m_{e}c{a}_0^2/2$ can be produced when a laser pulse and a longitudinal electric field interact with an electron via a non-wakefield mechanism. The mechanism consists of two stages: the reduction of the electron dephasing rate $\gamma -p_x/m_{e}c$ by an accelerating region of electric field and electron acceleration by the laser via the Lorentz force. This mechanism can, in principle, produce electrons that have longtudinal momenta that is a significant multiple of $m_{e}c{a}_0^2/2$. 2D PIC simulations of a relatively simple laser-plasma interaction indicate that the generation of super-ponderomotive electrons is strongly affected by this `anti-dephasing' mechanism.

5 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Theory of high harmonic generation in relativistic laser interaction with overdense plasma

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