Abstract
A relativistically intense laser pulse is focused into a helium jet and quasimonoenergetic electrons emitted at a 40° angle with respect to the laser axis are observed. The average electron energy is between 1 and 2 MeV and the total accelerated charge is about 1 nC emitted in a 10° cone angle. Three dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reproduce key features of the experimental results and show that the interaction between ionization heating and nonlinear cavitation wakefields is responsible for the acceleration.
- Received 15 January 2008
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.215002
©2008 American Physical Society