New epoch in the charged particle acceleration by relativistically intense laser radiation

Bulanov, S. V.

The development of the ultra-intense laser continues to open up new fields of physics. The laser accelerator development is now entering a new matured stage at which it becomes possible to manipulate in a controllable way the parameters of accelerated charged particle beams. The electron injection by breaking wake waves left by the laser pulse in underdense plasmas results in the quasi-mono-energetic beam production. The tailored multi-layer foil targets provide conditions for the high quality ion beam acceleration. Nonlinear interaction of co- and counter-propagating laser pulses in an underdense plasma can lead to super-intense electromagnetic pulse generation. A number of prominent applications are cited, including the charged particle injectors, the high energy physics, the bright sources of hard electromagnetic radiation and positrons.