Laser pulse-shape dependence of Compton scattering

Abstract

Compton scattering of short and ultra short (sub-cycle) laser pulses off mildly relativistic electrons is considered within a QED framework. The temporal shape of the pulse is essential for the differential cross section as a function of the energy of the scattered photon at fixed observation angle. The partly integrated cross section is sensitive to the non-linear dynamics resulting in a large enhancement of the cross section for short and, in particular, for ultra-short flat-top pulse envelopes which can reach several orders of magnitude, as compared with the case of a long pulse. Such effects can be studied experimentally and must be taken into account in Monte-Carlo/transport simulations of %$e^{+}{e}^{-}$ pair production in the interaction of electrons and photons in a strong laser field.

14 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (8)

• QED cascades induced by circularly polarized laser fields
• Nonlinear Compton scattering in ultra-short laser pulses
• Pair production in counter-propagating laser beams
• Non-Linear Compton Scattering of Ultrashort and Ultraintense Laser Pulses
• Trident pair production in strong laser pulses
• Compton Process in Intense Short Laser Pulses
• Photon polarisation in electron-seeded pair-creation cascades
• A Lorentz and gauge invariant measure of laser intensity