Influence of the Coulomb Interaction on the Radiation of a Few Body System

Abstract

Understanding energy absorption in laser-plasma interactions is crucial for applications ranging from inertial confinement fusion to particle acceleration. At the most fundamental level, this energy exchange is governed by the motion of individual charged particles in the laser field. However, when multiple particles are present, their mutual Coulomb interaction can modify the dynamics and, consequently, the energy absorption. In this work, we investigate this scenario by solving the classical equations of motion for two coupled charged particles interacting with an intense laser field. Within the plasma approximation, we find that the Coulomb interaction between the electrons does not significantly affect the energy transfer during the laser-matter interaction. Additionally, we explore the role of mass asymmetry by considering the classical electron-proton interaction as a target system. Our results highlight the critical importance of mass: the proton, due to its much slower dynamics, acquires substantially less energy from the field compared to the electron, leading to a pronounced asymmetry in the energy distribution between the two species.