Acceleration of charged particles by high intensity few-cycle laser pulses

Abstract

Only recently a breakthrough in laser plasma acceleration has been achieved with the observation of intense (nC) mono-energetic (10 % relative width) electron beams in the 100MeV energy range [1]. Above the wave-breaking threshold the electrons are trapped and accelerated in a single wake of the laser pulse, called bubble, according to PIC simulations [2]. At the MPQ Garching we plan to investigate the acceleration of electrons in this bubble regime by the use of 10 TW few-cycle laser pulse. As the pulse length of the few-cycle pulse of 5-10 fs remains below the plasma period also at comparatively high plasma densities, we expect the scheme to become more stable and efficient. © 2005 IEEE.