Abstract
We formulate the Flying Mirror Concept for relativistic interaction of ultra‐intense electromagnetic waves with plasmas, present its theoretical description and the results of computer simulations and laboratory experiments. In collisionless plasmas, the relativistic flying mirrors are thin and dense electron or electron‐ion layers accelerated by the high intensity electromagnetic waves up to velocity close to the speed of light in vacuum; in nonlinear‐media and in nonlinear vacuum they are the ionization fronts and the refraction index modulations induced by a strong electromagnetic wave. The reflection of the electromagnetic wave at the relativistic mirror results in its energy and frequency change due to the double Doppler effect. In the co‐propagating configuration, in the radiation pressure dominant regime, the energy of the electromagnetic wave is transferred to the ion energy providing a highly efficient acceleration mechanism. In the counter‐propagation configuration the frequency of the reflected wave is multiplied by the factor proportional to the gamma‐factor squared. If the relativistic mirror performs an oscillatory motion as in the case of the electron motion at the plasma‐vacuum interface, the reflected light spectrum is enriched with high order harmonics.
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