No Arabic abstract
The interaction of charged particles and photons with intense electromagnetic fields gives rise to multi-photon Compton and Breit-Wheeler processes. These are usually described in the framework of the external field approximation, where the electromagnetic field is assumed to have infinite energy. However, the multi-photon nature of these processes implies the absorption of a significant number of photons, which scales as the external field amplitude cubed. As a result, the interaction of a highly charged electron bunch with an intense laser pulse can lead to significant depletion of the laser pulse energy, thus rendering the external field approximation invalid. We provide relevant estimates for this depletion and find it to become important in the interaction between fields of amplitude $a_0 sim 10^3$ and electron bunches with charges of the order of 10 nC.
We consider the absorption of probe photons by electrons in the presence of an intense, pulsed, background field. Our analysis reveals an interplay between regularisation and gauge invariance which distinguishes absorption from its crossing-symmetric processes, as well as a physical interpretation of absorption in terms of degenerate processes in the weak field limit. In the strong field limit we develop a locally constant field approximation (LCFA) for absorption which also exhibits new features. We benchmark the LCFA against exact analytical calculations and explore its regime of validity. Pulse shape effects are also investigated, as well as infra-red and collinear limits of the absorption process.
Intense-field ionization of the hydrogen molecular ion by linearly-polarized light is modelled by direct solution of the fixed-nuclei time-dependent Schrodinger equation and compared with recent experiments. Parallel transitions are calculated using algorithms which exploit massively parallel computers. We identify and calculate dynamic tunnelling ionization resonances that depend on laser wavelength and intensity, and molecular bond length. Results for $lambda sim 1064$ nm are consistent with static tunnelling ionization. At shorter wavelengths $lambda sim 790 $ nm large dynamic corrections are observed. The results agree very well with recent experimental measurements of the ion spectra. Our results reproduce the single peak resonance and provide accurate ionization rate estimates at high intensities. At lower intensities our results confirm a double peak in the ionization rate as the bond length varies.
Radiative and non-radiative electron spin flip probabilities are analysed in both plane wave and focussed laser backgrounds. We provide a simple and physically transparent description of spin dynamics in plane waves, and demonstrate that there exists a kinematic regime in which the usual leading order perturbative hierarchy of QED is reversed, and non-radiative loop effects dominate over radiative tree-level spin-flips. We show that while this loop-dominance becomes suppressed in focussed laser pulses due to a high sensitivity to field geometry, there is nevertheless a regime in which, in principle, loop effects on spin transitions can be discerned.
We discuss radiation reaction effects on charges propagating in ultra-intense laser fields. Our analysis is based on an analytic solution of the Landau-Lifshitz equation. We suggest to measure radiation reaction in terms of a symmetry breaking parameter associated with the violation of null translation invariance in the direction opposite to the laser beam. As the Landau-Lifshitz equation is nonlinear the energy transfer within the pulse is rather sensitive to initial conditions. This is elucidated by comparing colliding and fixed target modes in electron laser collisions.
We present an overview of the performance of the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II (NDCX-II) accelerator at Berkeley Lab, and report on recent target experiments on beam driven melting and transmission ion energy loss measurements with nanosecond and millimeter-scale ion beam pulses and thin tin foils. Bunches with around 10^11 ions, 1-mm radius, and 2-30 ns FWHM duration have been created with corresponding fluences in the range of 0.1 to 0.7 J/cm^2. To achieve these short pulse durations and mm-scale focal spot radii, the 1.1 MeV He+ ion beam is neutralized in a drift compression section, which removes the space charge defocusing effect during final compression and focusing. The beam space charge and drift compression techniques resemble necessary beam conditions and manipulations in heavy ion inertial fusion accelerators. Quantitative comparison of detailed particle-in-cell simulations with the experiment play an important role in optimizing accelerator performance.