Inelastic collisions of relativistic electrons with atomic targets assisted by a laser field

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a weak laser field influences inelastic collisions between relativistic electrons and atomic targets, revealing significant effects on target transitions through electron motion modifications and the Compton effect.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of laser-assisted inelastic collisions, highlighting new mechanisms affecting atomic transitions in relativistic electron interactions.

Findings

Laser fields can significantly alter target transition probabilities.

Electron-laser interactions modify electron trajectories in relativistic collisions.

Conversion of laser photons into transition-frequency photons via the Compton effect is demonstrated.

Abstract

We consider inelastic collisions between relativistic electrons and atomic targets assisted by a low-frequency laser field in the case when this field is still much weaker than the typical internal fields in the target. Concentrating on target transitions we show that they can be substantially affected by the presence of the laser field. This may occur either via strong modifications in the motion of the relativistic electrons caused by the electron-laser interaction or via the Compton effect when the incident electrons convert laser photon(s) into photons with frequencies equal to target transition frequencies.