The structure of ponderomotive forces acting on an electron in relativistic laser fields

Abstract

An expression for the pondermotive force acting on a classical electron in a weakly nonuniform field of arbitrary intensity is derived by the method of averaging over the characteristic time of the guiding center of the electron. It is shown that in superstrong (relativistic) fields this force acquires a rotational character and depends on the polarization of the field. Fundamentally new types of systems for accelerating or confining charged particles can be developed on the basis of this effect.