Abstract

We report results on the interaction of a laser produced electron beam with an ultra-intense laser pulse in a “colliding” geometry, where the two intersect at an angle of 135 deg. The light pulse imparts longitudinal momentum to the electron beam, leading to the beam being deflected. To the best of our knowledge, we have shown for the first time that the longitudinal fields that are present at the focus of a high intensity laser pulse modify the trajectory of the electron beam at relativistic intensities. We have also shown that the temporal duration of the electron beam is of the order of a picosecond.

© 2005 Optical Society of America