AbstractA new concept of generating tight bunches of electrons accelerated to high energies is proposed. The electrons are born via ionization of a low-density neutral gas by laser radiation, and the concept is based on the electrons acceleration in traps arising within the pattern of interference of several relativistically intense laser pulses with amplitude fronts tilted relative to their phase fronts. The traps move with the speed of light and (1) collect electrons; (2) compress them to extremely high density in all dimensions, forming electron bunches; and (3) accelerate the resulting bunches to energies of at least several GeV per electron. The simulations of bunch formation employ the Newton equation with the corresponding Lorentz force.
Formation of temporally shaped electron bunches for beam-driven collinear wakefield accelerators
