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Ultraintense Electromagnetic Radiation in Plasmas

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Progress in Ultrafast Intense Laser Science Volume I

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Chemical Physics ((PUILS,volume 84))

10.3 Concluding Remarks

In this chapter the fundamental physical processes underlying the interaction of relativistically intense EM radiation with a preformed collisionless plasma have been discussed, introducing the most appropriate relativistic models which are currently used in the theoretical research: the kinetic approach, the multi-fluid model, and the electron-fluid model in a fixed-ion background. The role of relativistic nonlinearities for focused radiation intensities above Iλ 2 ≈ 1018 Wµm2/cm2 has been emphasized, reviewing several physical processes like relativistic laser pulse focusing, compression and splitting, harmonic generation, electron and ion acceleration, quasi-static magnetic field generation, X-ray production, laser-induced nuclear reactions, electron-positron production. All these issues demonstrate that the successful development of more and more intense lasers in the last decade has opened up several new fields of fundamental and applied science, which may results in applications unpredictable ten or twenty years ago.

The fundamental aspects of the relativistic dynamic of an electron in the relativistically intense laser pulse have been discussed, starting from the socalled “figure-of-8” trajectory. It is to be emphasized that in such interaction regimes, an appreciable elongation of the electron excursion in the direction of the pulse propagation develops, which may become of the same order as that in the transverse direction. In addition, in an increasingly strong field, the electron parallel momentum scales as a 2, while the perpendicular component scales as a. Therefore, in the ultra-relativistic regime the longitudinal electron dynamics can become more important than the transverse one. An important consequence is that a short and intense laser pulse, acting mainly on electrons, is able to create strong charge separations, which are at the basis of the effective charged particle acceleration, both of electrons and ions, and of the formation of relativistic electromagnetic solitons (RES). RES and laser-based ion-acceleration will be discussed in a forthcoming chapter.

The ultra-strong laser-pulse interaction in such extreme regimes can be considered as one of the most attractive fields of modern theoretical and experimental research and is destined to produce very interesting applications in the near future.3

During the editorial process of this volume, two review articles on relevant subjects have been published, which are worth to be referenced [78, 79].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plasma Physics Institute “P. Caldirola”, C.N.R., Milan, Italy

    Maurizio Lontano & Matteo Passoni

  2. Nuclear Engineering Dept., Polytechnic of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Matteo Passoni

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  1. Maurizio Lontano
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  2. Matteo Passoni
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Lontano, M., Passoni, M. (2006). Ultraintense Electromagnetic Radiation in Plasmas. In: Progress in Ultrafast Intense Laser Science Volume I. Springer Series in Chemical Physics, vol 84. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg . https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-34422-5_10

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