Generation of short gamma-ray pulses on electron bunches formed in intense interfering laser beams with tilted fronts

Abstract

It is shown that in the interference of multiple laser pulses with a relativistic intensity, phase and amplitude fronts of which are tilted at an angle with respect to their wave vector, effective traps of charged particles, which are moving at the velocity of light, are formed. Such traps are capable of capturing and accelerating the electrons produced in the ionisation of low-density gas by means of laser radiation. The accelerated electrons in the traps form a bunch, whose dimensions in all directions are much smaller than the laser radiation wavelength. Calculations show that the energy of accelerated electrons may amount to several hundred GeV at experimentally accessible relativistic laser intensities. As a result of the inverse Compton scattering, gamma-quanta with a high energy and narrow radiation pattern are emitted when these electrons interact with a laser pulse propagating from the opposite direction. The duration of emitted gamma-ray pulses constitutes a few attoseconds. The simulation is performed by solving the relativistic equation of motion for an electron with a relevant Lorentz force.