Electron acceleration driven by ultrashort and nonparaxial radially polarized laser pulses

doi:10.1364/OL.37.002442

« Show journal navigation

Electron acceleration driven by ultrashort and nonparaxial radially polarized laser pulses

Vincent Marceau, Alexandre April, and Michel Piché »View Author Affiliations

Optics Letters, Vol. 37, Issue 13, pp. 2442-2444 (2012)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.37.002442

View Full Text Article

Acrobat PDF (292 KB)

Journal Search
Article Lookup

Article Tools

Citations

Alert me when this article is cited
Export Citation/Save

Article Navigation

▸ Article Outline
– Abstract
– References and links

Article Tools
Full Text
Article Info
References
Cited By
Figures
Metrics
Download PDF

Viewing Equations in the
HTML Article

Optimal Viewing Recommendations

Full Text
Article Info
References (15)
Cited By
Figures (3)
Metrics

Abstract

Exact closed-form solutions to Maxwell’s equations are used to investigate the acceleration of electrons in vacuum driven by ultrashort and nonparaxial radially polarized laser pulses. We show that the threshold power above which significant acceleration takes place is greatly reduced by using a tighter focus. Moreover, electrons accelerated by tightly focused single-cycle laser pulses may reach around 80% of the theoretical energy gain limit, about twice the value previously reported with few-cycle paraxial pulses. Our results demonstrate that the direct acceleration of electrons in vacuum is well within reach of current laser technology.

The advent of ultraintense laser facilities has triggered a growing interest in laser-driven electron acceleration, opening new possibilities for the development of compact electron accelerators [1

V. Malka, J. Faure, Y. A. Gauduel, E. Lefebvre, A. Rousse, and K. Y. Phuoc, Nat. Phys. 4, 447 (2008). [CrossRef]

]. Among the proposed laser acceleration schemes, the use of ultraintense radially polarized laser beams in vacuum is very promising [2

C. Varin and M. Piché, Phys. Rev. E 74, 045602(R) (2006). [CrossRef]

Y. I. Salamin, Phys. Rev. A 73, 043402 (2006). [CrossRef]

Y. I. Salamin, Opt. Lett. 32, 90 (2007). [CrossRef]

A. Karmakar and A. Pukhov, Laser Part. Beams 25, 371 (2007). [CrossRef]

P.-L. Fortin, M. Piché, and C. Varin, J. Phys. B 43, 025401 (2010). [CrossRef]

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

–8

S. G. Bochkarev, K. I. Popov, and V. Y. Bychenkov, Plasma Phys. Rep. 37, 603 (2011). [CrossRef]

]. This scheme, also termed direct acceleration, takes advantage of the strong longitudinal electric field at beam center to accelerate electrons to relativistic velocities along the optical axis. According to numerical simulations, clouds of electrons accelerated by radially polarized laser beams could form well-collimated attosecond electron bunches [2

C. Varin and M. Piché, Phys. Rev. E 74, 045602(R) (2006). [CrossRef]

A. Karmakar and A. Pukhov, Laser Part. Beams 25, 371 (2007). [CrossRef]

]. However, the main drawback of direct acceleration is that substantial acceleration only occurs above a high threshold power [9

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 211101 (2011). [CrossRef]

]; for electrons initially at rest to reach mega-electron-volt energies, laser peak powers of at least a few terawatts would be required [7

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

Extensive numerical studies of electron acceleration by radially polarized laser beams have shown that reducing the pulse duration and the beam waist size generally increases the maximum energy gain [7

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

,10

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Lett. 36, 957 (2011). [CrossRef]

]. However, these analyses were limited by the paraxial and slowly varying envelope approximations. When the beam waist size is of the order of the laser wavelength and the pulse duration approaches the single-cycle limit, these approximations lose their validity.

In this Letter, we provide a simple method to study the direct acceleration of electrons in the nonparaxial and ultrashort pulse regime. Under tight focusing conditions, we show that an electron initially at rest on the optical axis may be accelerated to mega-electron-volt energies with laser peak powers as low as a few gigawatts. At high laser power, we demonstrate that the use of nonparaxial single-cycle pulses allows for a more efficient acceleration, reaching about 80% of the theoretical energy gain limit, in comparison to 40% for pulses limited by the paraxial and slowly varying envelope approximations [7

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

In order to be accurately described, ultrashort and tightly focused pulsed beams must be modeled as exact solutions to Maxwell’s equations. Recently, April [11

A. April, in Coherence and Ultrashort Pulse Laser Emission , F. J. Duarte, ed. (InTech, 2010), pp. 355–382.

] presented a simple and complete strategy to obtain exact closed-form solutions for the electromagnetic fields of such beams. Following his approach, an isodiffracting

{TM}_{01}

pulsed beam propagating in vacuum along the

z

axis (beam waist at

z = 0

) is described by the following field components in cylindrical coordinates

(r, ϕ, z)

[11

A. April, in Coherence and Ultrashort Pulse Laser Emission , F. J. Duarte, ed. (InTech, 2010), pp. 355–382.

E_{r} (r, t) = ℜ {\frac{3 E_{0} \sin 2 \tilde{θ}}{2 \tilde{R}} (\frac{G_{-}^{(0)}}{{\tilde{R}}^{2}} - \frac{G_{+}^{(1)}}{c \tilde{R}} + \frac{G_{-}^{(2)}}{3 c^{2}})},

(1)

E_{z} (r, t) = ℜ {\frac{E_{0}}{\tilde{R}} [\frac{(3 \cos^{2} \tilde{θ} - 1)}{\tilde{R}} (\frac{G_{-}^{(0)}}{\tilde{R}} - \frac{G_{+}^{(1)}}{c}) - \frac{\sin^{2} \tilde{θ}}{c^{2}} G_{-}^{(2)}]},

(2)

H_{ϕ} (r, t) = ℜ {\frac{E_{0} \sin \tilde{θ}}{η_{0} \tilde{R}} (\frac{G_{-}^{(1)}}{c \tilde{R}} - \frac{G_{+}^{(2)}}{c^{2}})} .

(3)

Here

ℜ {\dots}

denotes the real part,

c

is the speed of light in free space,

η_{0}

is the impedance of free space,

E_{0}

is a constant amplitude,

a

is a real positive constant called the confocal parameter (identical for all frequency components in an isodiffracting pulsed beam),

\tilde{R} = {[r^{2} + {(z + j a)}^{2}]}^{1 / 2}

\cos \tilde{θ} = (z + j a) / \tilde{R}

, and

G_{\pm}^{(n)} = \partial_{t}^{n} [f ({\tilde{t}}_{+}) \pm f ({\tilde{t}}_{-})]

with

f (t) = e^{- j ϕ_{0}} {(1 - j ω_{0} t / s)}^{- (s + 1)}

and

{\tilde{t}}_{\pm} = t \pm \tilde{R} / c + j a / c

. The function

f (t)

is the inverse Fourier transform of the Poisson-like frequency spectrum of the pulse, given by [12

C. F. R. Caron and R. M. Potvliege, J. Mod. Opt. 46, 1881 (1999). [CrossRef]

]

F (ω) = 2 π e^{- j ϕ_{0}} {(\frac{s}{ω_{0}})}^{s + 1} \frac{ω^{s} e^{- s ω / ω_{0}}}{Γ (s + 1)} H (ω),

(4)

where

s

is a real positive parameter,

ϕ_{0}

is the constant pulse phase,

ω_{0} = c k_{0}

is the frequency of maximum amplitude, and

H (ω)

is the Heaviside step function. The fields given by Eqs. (1)–(3) may be produced by focusing a collimated radially polarized input beam with a parabolic mirror of large aperture [13

A. April and M. Piché, Opt. Express 18, 22128 (2010). [CrossRef]

The degree of paraxiality of the beam can be characterized by

k_{0} a

, which is monotonically related to the beam waist size

w_{0}

and Rayleigh range

z_{R}

at wavelength

λ_{0}

z_{R} = k_{0} w_{0}^{2} / 2 = [\sqrt{1 + {(k_{0} a)}^{2}} - 1] / k_{0}

[14

G. Rodríguez-Morales and S. Chávez-Cerda, Opt. Lett. 29, 430 (2004). [CrossRef]

]. Therefore,

k_{0} a \sim 1

for tight focusing conditions, while

k_{0} a ≫ 1

for paraxial beams, in which case

z_{R} \approx a

. The pulse duration

T

, which may be defined as twice the root-mean-square width of

{| E_{z} |}^{2}

, increases monotonically with

s

. The peak power

P_{peak}

of the pulse is found by numerically integrating the

z

component of the Poynting vector,

S_{z} = E_{r} H_{ϕ}

, in the transverse plane at

z = t = 0

with

ϕ_{0} = 0

. Finally, in the limit

k_{0} a ≫ 1

and

s ≫ 1

, Eqs. (1)–(3) reduce to the fields of the paraxial

{TM}_{01}

Gaussian pulse used in [6

P.-L. Fortin, M. Piché, and C. Varin, J. Phys. B 43, 025401 (2010). [CrossRef]

To simulate the laser-driven electron acceleration, the conventional Lorentz force equation [6

P.-L. Fortin, M. Piché, and C. Varin, J. Phys. B 43, 025401 (2010). [CrossRef]

] was integrated numerically for an electron initially at rest on the optical axis outside the laser pulse at position

z_{0}

. Under an appropriate change of coordinates, namely

ζ = z / a

ρ = r / a

, and

τ = ω_{0} t

, it is possible to show that the dynamics is totally independent of the wavelength of maximum field amplitude

λ_{0} = 2 π / k_{0}

and only depends on the parameters

k_{0} a

s

, and

P_{peak}

. For various values of

k_{0} a

and

s

, the electron initial position

z_{0}

and the pulse phase

ϕ_{0}

were optimized to obtain the maximum energy gain

Δ W_{\max}

at different peak powers

P_{peak}

. The variation of

Δ W_{\max}

with

P_{peak}

is illustrated in Fig. 1. In Fig. 1(a), the energy gain is normalized by the theoretical energy gain limit,

Δ W_{\lim} = - e \int_{0}^{\infty} E_{z} (r = 0, t = z / c) d z

with

ϕ_{0} = π

, which is equal to the energy gain of an electron that hypothetically remains at pulse peak from

z = 0

to infinity [6

P.-L. Fortin, M. Piché, and C. Varin, J. Phys. B 43, 025401 (2010). [CrossRef]

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

]. For comparison, the case

w_{0} = 2 μm

and

T = 7.5 fs

λ_{0} = 800 nm

(which gives

k_{0} a \approx 124

and

s \approx 155

) is also shown in Fig. 1. This case was previously studied in [7

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

] as the limit imposed by the paraxial and slowly varying envelope approximations.

Fig. 1. Maximum (a) normalized and (b) absolute energy gain of an electron initially at rest on the optical axis versus the laser pulse peak power for different values of

k_{0} a

and

s

. The values of

s

used represent single-cycle (

s = 1

), two-cycle (

s = 10

), and five-cycle (

s = 60

) pulses. The gray dashed curve (

k_{0} a = 124

s = 155

) corresponds to the limit of the paraxial regime investigated in [7

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

]. The energy gain is evaluated 20 ps after the passage of the pulse at

z = 0

At constant pulse duration, Fig. 1(a) shows that the threshold laser peak power above which significant acceleration takes place is dramatically reduced as the beam focus is made tighter, i.e., as

k_{0} a

decreases. This can be attributed to the fact that the amplitude of the longitudinal on-axis electric field component increases as

k_{0} a

decreases (see Fig. 2). Figure 1 also shows that longer pulses have a lower acceleration threshold and allow for higher energy gains at low peak powers. This agrees with [7

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

], where the same phenomenon was reported to a weaker extent. This could be explained by the fact that the first cycles of the pulse preaccelerate the electron before it reaches the pulse peak, thus lowering the required threshold power. According to Fig. 1(b), mega-electron-volt energies may be reached at peak powers as low as 10 GW with tightly focused few-cycle pulses. In comparison, a peak power of about 10 TW is required to reach the same energy gain with paraxial pulses. From a practical standpoint, it is however important to notice that while decreasing the acceleration threshold power, the use of tightly focused pulsed beams may reduce the number of fast electrons that are produced. The influence of

k_{0} a

and

s

on the total accelerated charge in three-dimensional simulations is the object of ongoing research.

Fig. 2. Longitudinal on-axis electric field at pulse peak

t = z / c

(computed for

λ_{0} = 800 nm

) versus distance from beam waist for different values of

k_{0} a

. The other parameters are

ϕ_{0} = 0

s = 10

, and

P_{peak} = 10^{12} W

At higher peak powers, the use of shorter laser pulses yields a more efficient acceleration. Indeed, Fig. 1(a) shows that electrons accelerated by a tightly focused single-cycle (

s = 1

) pulse may reach 80% of the theoretical energy gain limit, compared to 40% with a paraxial few-cycle pulse. Shorter pulses lead to higher maximum energy gains for two reasons. First, we see in Fig. 3(a) that with a shorter pulse, the electron enters its final accelerating cycle closer (in terms of

a

) to the focus, thus increasing the energy it is able to extract from the electric field. Second, as is shown in Figs. 3(b)–3(d), a pulse of shorter duration allows the electron to move closer to the pulse peak during its final accelerating cycle; with longer durations, the electron is instead accelerated by the front edge of the pulse. Figure 1(b) also shows that reducing the pulse duration and using a tighter focus increase the absolute value (in mega-electron-volts) of the maximum energy gain at high peak powers. In the high-power regime,

Δ W_{\max}

scales as

P_{peak}^{1 / 2}

, in agreement with results obtained under paraxial conditions [3

Y. I. Salamin, Phys. Rev. A 73, 043402 (2006). [CrossRef]

P.-L. Fortin, M. Piché, and C. Varin, J. Phys. B 43, 025401 (2010). [CrossRef]

L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]

Fig. 3. (a) Energy gain versus distance from beam waist for an electron accelerated by pulses of various durations with

k_{0} a = 5

P_{peak} = 5 PW

. For each pulse, a snapshot of the longitudinal electric field

E_{z}

(computed for

λ_{0} = 800 nm

) was taken at the position indicated by the dotted vertical line and is shown in (b)–(d). The filled circle in (b)–(d) indicates the position of the electron on the optical axis. The

z_{0}

and

ϕ_{0}

parameters are chosen to obtain the maximum energy gain with each pulse.

In summary, our results highlight the importance of going beyond the paraxial and slowly varying envelope approximations in the analysis of electron acceleration in vacuum by radially polarized laser beams. We have provided a simple method to investigate the acceleration dynamics in the nonparaxial and ultrashort pulse regime by using exact closed-form solutions to Maxwell’s equations. With tightly focused single-cycle laser pulses, electrons may reach around 80% of the theoretical energy gain limit, twice the value obtained with paraxial few-cycle pulses. We have also demonstrated the possibility of significantly reducing the acceleration threshold power by using a tighter focus. According to our results, it would be possible, under tight focusing conditions such as those obtained with a high-aperture parabolic mirror, to reach mega-electron-volt energy gains with laser peak powers of a few gigawatts. This is about

10^{3}

times lower than the peak power required to reach the same energy gain in the limit of the paraxial approximation. Besides being much more common in laboratories, gigawatt lasers can be operated at higher repetition rates than terawatt lasers and allow for easier pulse compression. Direct acceleration of electrons in vacuum by radially polarized laser beams is therefore much more accessible to the current laser technology than previously expected; its experimental realization is currently under investigation [15

S. Payeur, S. Fourmaux, B. E. Schmidt, J. P. MacLean, C. Tchervenkov, F. Légaré, M. Piché, and J. C. Kieffer, “Generation of a beam of fast electrons by tightly focusing a radially polarized ultrashort laser pulse,” submitted to Appl. Phys. Lett.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Le Fonds de Recherche du Québec–Nature et Technologies (FRQNT), and the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI). The authors are also grateful to the CLUMEQ consortium for computational resources.

References

1.	V. Malka, J. Faure, Y. A. Gauduel, E. Lefebvre, A. Rousse, and K. Y. Phuoc, Nat. Phys. 4, 447 (2008). [CrossRef]
2.	C. Varin and M. Piché, Phys. Rev. E 74, 045602(R) (2006). [CrossRef]
3.	Y. I. Salamin, Phys. Rev. A 73, 043402 (2006). [CrossRef]
4.	Y. I. Salamin, Opt. Lett. 32, 90 (2007). [CrossRef]
5.	A. Karmakar and A. Pukhov, Laser Part. Beams 25, 371 (2007). [CrossRef]
6.	P.-L. Fortin, M. Piché, and C. Varin, J. Phys. B 43, 025401 (2010). [CrossRef]
7.	L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]
8.	S. G. Bochkarev, K. I. Popov, and V. Y. Bychenkov, Plasma Phys. Rep. 37, 603 (2011). [CrossRef]
9.	L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 211101 (2011). [CrossRef]
10.	L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Lett. 36, 957 (2011). [CrossRef]
11.	A. April, in Coherence and Ultrashort Pulse Laser Emission , F. J. Duarte, ed. (InTech, 2010), pp. 355–382.
12.	C. F. R. Caron and R. M. Potvliege, J. Mod. Opt. 46, 1881 (1999). [CrossRef]
13.	A. April and M. Piché, Opt. Express 18, 22128 (2010). [CrossRef]
14.	G. Rodríguez-Morales and S. Chávez-Cerda, Opt. Lett. 29, 430 (2004). [CrossRef]
15.	S. Payeur, S. Fourmaux, B. E. Schmidt, J. P. MacLean, C. Tchervenkov, F. Légaré, M. Piché, and J. C. Kieffer, “Generation of a beam of fast electrons by tightly focusing a radially polarized ultrashort laser pulse,” submitted to Appl. Phys. Lett.

OCIS Codes
(320.7090) Ultrafast optics : Ultrafast lasers
(320.7120) Ultrafast optics : Ultrafast phenomena
(350.4990) Other areas of optics : Particles
(020.2649) Atomic and molecular physics : Strong field laser physics

ToC Category:
Atomic and Molecular Physics

History
Original Manuscript: April 12, 2012
Manuscript Accepted: April 23, 2012
Published: June 18, 2012

Virtual Issues
June 29, 2012 Spotlight on Optics

Citation
Vincent Marceau, Alexandre April, and Michel Piché, "Electron acceleration driven by ultrashort and nonparaxial radially polarized laser pulses," Opt. Lett. 37, 2442-2444 (2012)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ol/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-37-13-2442

Sort: Author | Year | Journal | Reset

References

V. Malka, J. Faure, Y. A. Gauduel, E. Lefebvre, A. Rousse, and K. Y. Phuoc, Nat. Phys. 4, 447 (2008). [CrossRef]
C. Varin and M. Piché, Phys. Rev. E 74, 045602(R) (2006). [CrossRef]
Y. I. Salamin, Phys. Rev. A 73, 043402 (2006). [CrossRef]
Y. I. Salamin, Opt. Lett. 32, 90 (2007). [CrossRef]
A. Karmakar and A. Pukhov, Laser Part. Beams 25, 371 (2007). [CrossRef]
P.-L. Fortin, M. Piché, and C. Varin, J. Phys. B 43, 025401 (2010). [CrossRef]
L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Express 18, 25035 (2010). [CrossRef]
S. G. Bochkarev, K. I. Popov, and V. Y. Bychenkov, Plasma Phys. Rep. 37, 603 (2011). [CrossRef]
L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 211101 (2011). [CrossRef]
L. J. Wong and F. X. Kärtner, Opt. Lett. 36, 957 (2011). [CrossRef]
A. April, in Coherence and Ultrashort Pulse Laser Emission, F. J. Duarte, ed. (InTech, 2010), pp. 355–382.
C. F. R. Caron and R. M. Potvliege, J. Mod. Opt. 46, 1881 (1999). [CrossRef]
A. April and M. Piché, Opt. Express 18, 22128 (2010). [CrossRef]
G. Rodríguez-Morales and S. Chávez-Cerda, Opt. Lett. 29, 430 (2004). [CrossRef]
S. Payeur, S. Fourmaux, B. E. Schmidt, J. P. MacLean, C. Tchervenkov, F. Légaré, M. Piché, and J. C. Kieffer, “Generation of a beam of fast electrons by tightly focusing a radially polarized ultrashort laser pulse,” submitted to Appl. Phys. Lett.

Cited By

Alert me when this paper is cited

OSA is able to provide readers links to articles that cite this paper by participating in CrossRef's Cited-By Linking service. CrossRef includes content from more than 3000 publishers and societies. In addition to listing OSA journal articles that cite this paper, citing articles from other participating publishers will also be listed.

Click here to see a list of articles that cite this paper