Schwinger limit attainability with extreme power lasers

Bulanov, S. S.*; Esirkepov, T. Z.; Thomas, A. G. R.*; Koga, J. K.; Bulanov, S. V.

Physical Review Letters, 105(22), p.220407_1 - 220407_4, 2010/11

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.220407

High intensity colliding laser pulses can create abundant electron-positron pair plasma, which can scatter the incoming electromagnetic waves. This process can prevent reaching the critical field of Quantum Electrodynamics at which vacuum breakdown and polarization occur. Considering the pairs are seeded by the Schwinger mechanism, it is shown that the effects of radiation friction and the electron-positron avalanche development in vacuum depend on the electromagnetic wave polarization. For circularly polarized colliding pulses, which force the electrons to move in circles, these effects dominate not only the particle motion but also the evolution of the pulses. While for linearly polarized pulses, where the electrons (positrons) oscillate along the electric field, these effects are not as strong. There is an apparent analogy of these cases with circular and linear electron accelerators with the corresponding constraining and reduced roles of synchrotron radiation losses.