Normalized transverse emittance reduction by an azimuthally symmetric optical Bessel-beam

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of an electron counter-propagating along a radially polarized optical Bessel beam. It is shown that the radiation reaction force can reduce significantly the longitudinal angular momentum implying a similar reduction in the kinetic energy and the normalized transverse emittance. For a proper description of the phenomena we employ an approximation of the Abraham–Lorentz–Dirac radiation reaction force subject to two constraints: causality is satisfied, and orthogonality of the velocity and acceleration 4-vectors is guaranteed at any instant.