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Electron injection into laser wakefields by colliding circularly-polarized laser pulses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2009

W.-M. Wang ,
Z.-M. Sheng  and
J. Zhang
W.-M. Wang
Affiliation:
Beijing National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing, China
Z.-M. Sheng*
Affiliation:
Beijing National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing, China Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
J. Zhang
Affiliation:
Beijing National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing, China Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Zheng-Ming Sheng, Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Rd., Shanghai 200240, China. E-mail: zmsheng@sjtu.edu.cn
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Abstract

Electron injection into a laser wakefield by the colliding of two circularly polarized laser pulses is analyzed by the Hamiltonian approach and particle-in-cell simulations. If the pump pulse driving the laser wakefield is right-circularly-polarized, electron injection is found only when the counter-propagating injection pulse is left-circularly-polarized and vice versa. This holds when the injection pulse is at low intensity and has a frequency near the pump pulse frequency ω0. For a moderately intense injection pulse, even if the two pulses have the same polarization, electron injection is found but with less efficiency. It is also found that the injection pulse with the frequency within [0.5ω0,3ω0] can still create electron injection efficiently provided it has the opposite polarization with the pump pulse.

Keywords

Laser-plasma acceleratorLaser-plasma interactionOptical injectionPIC simulation
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 3 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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