Classical Scattering of High-Energy Electrons off Ultra-Intense Laser Beams Taking into Account Radiation Reaction

Abstract

The head-on scattering of electrons with energies from a few MeV to 5 GeV off ultrashort and ultra-intense laser pulses at petawatt intensities is investigated. Radiation reaction (RR) effects are included through the correction terms given by the Landau–Lifshitz equation. Full paraxial fields for the laser are used, including their longitudinal electric and magnetic components, and both the fundamental Gaussian TEM00 mode as well as the orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode with (l,p)=(1,0) are studied. We compare the expected behavior, as regards the influence of RR, at near-infrared (NIR) and at vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) or X-ray wavelengths.

Keywords

• Lorentz gauge and condition
• orbital angular momentum beams
• paraxial approximation and corrections
• electron dynamics in full paraxial fields
• effects of radiation reaction