Forward sliding-swing acceleration: electron acceleration by high-intensity lasers in strong plasma magnetic fields

Abstract

A high-intensity laser beam propagating through a dense plasma drives a strong current that robustly sustains a strong quasi-static Mega Tesla-level azimuthal magnetic field. The transverse laser field efficiently accelerates electrons in the presence of such a field that confines the transverse motion and deflects the electrons in the forward direction, establishing the novel forward-sliding swing acceleration mechanism. Its advantage is a threshold rather than resonant behavior, accelerating electrons to high energies for sufficiently strong laser-driven currents. We study the electrons' dynamics by a simplified model analytically, specifically deriving simple relations between the current, the particles' initial transverse momenta and the laser's field strength classifying the energy gain. We confirm the model's predictions by numerical simulations, indicating Mega ampere-level threshold currents and energy gains two orders of magnitude higher than achievable without the magnetic field.

Letter: 6 pages, 3 figures; Supplemental Material: 5 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Magnetic field amplification to the gigagauss scale via dynamos driven by femtosecond lasers
• Electron Acceleration Using Twisted Laser Wavefronts
• The Influence of Laser Focusing Conditions on the Direct Laser Acceleration of Electrons
• Deciphering in situ electron dynamics of ultrarelativistic plasma via polarization pattern of emitted gamma photons
• Direct laser acceleration: A model for the electron injection from the walls of a cylindrical guiding structure
• Ion heating in Laser interacting with magnetized plasma
• Accurate simulation of direct laser acceleration in a laser wakefield accelerator
• Relativistically transparent magnetic filaments: scaling laws, initial results and prospects for strong-field QED studies
• Dominance of $\gamma$-$\gamma$ electron-positron pair creation in a plasma driven by high-intensity lasers
• Phase-Matched Harmonic Generation in Strongly Magnetized Plasma