Thomson scattering in high intensity regime

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the scattering of a very intense laser pulse (intensity $I\sim10^{21}\;{\mathrm{W/cm^2}}$) on relativistic electrons with Lorentz factor between 10 and 45. The laser pulse is modeled by a plane wave with finite length and the calculations are performed within the framework of the classical electrodynamics, which is valid for the field intensity and range of electron energies we consider. For a pulse with the central wavelength $\lambda=1060\;{\mathrm{nm}}$ and circular polarization, we study systematically the angular distribution of the emitted radiation, $dW/d\Omega$, in its dependence on the electron energy for two collision geometries: the head-on collision (counterpropagating electron and laser pulse), and the 90 degrees collision (the initial electron momentum orthogonal to the laser propagation direction). We investigate the relation between $dW/d\Omega$ and the trajectory followed by the electron velocity during the laser pulse and, for the case of a short laser pulse, we discuss the carrier-envelope phase effects. We also present, for the two mentioned geometries, an analysis of the polarization of the emitted radiation and a comparison of the results predicted by the exact classical formula with a high-energy approximation of it.