Electron laser acceleration in vacuum by a quadratically chirped laser pulse

Abstract

Single MeV electrons in vacuum subjected to single high-intensity quadratically chirped laser pulses are shown to gain multi-GeV energies. The laser pulses are modelled by finite-duration trapezoidal and cos 2 pulse-shapes and the equations of motion are solved numerically. It is found that, typically, the maximum energy gain from interaction with a quadratic chirp is about half of what would be gained from a linear chirp.