Tallents, Gregory John orcid.org/0000-0002-1409-105X (2023) Light-to-plasma Momentum Transfer. Applied Sciences. 5225. ISSN 2076-3417
Abstract
The momentum of light in a plasma and the momentum transfer from light to plasma is calculated for a uniform plane of light incident into a uniform plasma. At low irradiance, the Minkowski and Abraham expressions for photon momentum are shown to be equivalent. We evaluate relativistic electron motion at a high irradiance for a plasma and show that most light momentum is transferred to the electrons associated with motion parallel to the light propagation at an irradiance corresponding to the reduced vector potential ao = 3.7 (reduced irradiance 2 X 10^19 W cm^-2 um^2). Our results show that to ensure the maximum momentum transfer from photons to electrons in motion parallel to the k-direction for fixed laser pulse energy, the laser focusing should be adjusted to achieve ao = 3.7, even if tighter focusing, and thus higher ao values, are possible.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 by the author |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Physics (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 25 Apr 2023 15:20 |
Last Modified: | 17 Dec 2024 00:25 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/app13095225 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/app13095225 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:198600 |