ELECTRON-BEAM CHARACTERISTICS FROM LASER-DRIVEN WAVE BREAKING

The generation of high-current (>kA), relativistic electron beams from the wave breaking of plasma waves generated by a highly nonlinear int eraction between Raman scattering, self-heating, and self-focusing of high-power (>5 TW), short-pulse (<1 ps) lasers is examined in detail u sing a fully explicit particle-in-cell model. The resulting beams have a continuous energy spread with a maximum energy exceeding simple dep hasing estimates. For a 5J laser, a total of 2 x 10(11) electrons are accelerated, but 2 X 10(8) electrons are at 50 +/- 1 MeV with a normal ized emittance of 13 pi mm mrad.