Frequency scaling law for nonlinear Compton and Thomson scattering: Relevance of spin and polarization effects

Abstract

The distributions of Compton and Thomson radiation for a shaped laser pulse colliding with a free electron are calculated in the framework of quantum and classical electrodynamics, respectively. We introduce a scaling law for the Compton and the Thomson frequency distributions which universally applies to long and short incident pulses. Thus, we extend the validity of frequency scaling postulated in previous studies comparing nonlinear Compton and Thomson processes. The scaling law introduced in this paper relates the Compton no-spin flipping process to the Thomson process over nearly the entire spectrum of emitted radiation, including its high-energy portion. By applying the frequency scaling, we identify that both spin and polarization effects are responsible for differences between classical and quantum results. The same frequency scaling applies to angular distributions and to temporal power distributions of emitted radiation, which we illustrate numerically.

17 pages, 11 figures

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Advances in QED with intense background fields
• Charged particle motion and radiation in strong electromagnetic fields
• Theory of Radiative Electron Polarization in Strong Laser Fields
• Spin and polarisation dependent LCFA rates for nonlinear Compton and Breit-Wheeler processes
• Narrowband inverse Compton scattering x-ray sources at high laser intensities
• Spin-polarizing interferometric beam splitter for free electrons
• Strong-field Breit-Wheeler pair production in short laser pulses: Relevance of spin effects
• Loop spin effects in intense background fields
• Temporal laser pulse shape effects in nonlinear Thomson scattering
• Supercontinuum in ionization by relativistically intense and short laser pulses: ionization without interference and its time analysis
• Generalized Klein-Nishina formula
• Electron spin filter and polarizer in a standing light wave
• Spin dynamics in Kapitza-Dirac scattering of electrons from bichromatic laser fields
• Combining Harmonic Generation and Laser Chirping to Achieve High Spectral Density in Compton Sources