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Optical Deflection and Temporal Characterization of an Ultrafast Laser-Produced Electron Beam

2005; American Physical Society; Volume: 95; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.95.035004

1092-0145

Sudeep Banerjee, S. M. Sepke, Rahul Shah, Anthony Valenzuela, A. Maksimchuk, D. Umstadter,

Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques

The interaction of a laser-produced electron beam with an ultraintense laser pulse in free space is studied. We show that the optical pulse with a(0)=0.5 imparts momentum to the electron beam, causing it to deflect along the laser propagation direction. The observed 3-degree angular deflection is found to be independent of polarization and in good agreement with a theoretical model for the interaction of free electrons with a tightly focused Gaussian pulse, but only when longitudinal fields are taken into account. This technique is used to temporally characterize a subpicosecond laser-wakefield-driven electron bunch. Applications to electron-beam conditioning are also discussed.