Electron Acceleration in Underdense Plasmas Described with a Classical Effective Theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a classical effective theory for laser-driven electron acceleration in underdense plasmas, simplifying the plasma as a medium with a refractive index and analyzing electron dynamics without complex simulations.

Contribution

The study presents a simplified classical model for electron acceleration in underdense plasmas, avoiding PIC simulations and providing analytical insights into electron motion.

Findings

The classical model agrees with PIC simulations and experimental data.

Electron trajectories are accurately described by the relativistic equations of motion.

The effective theory offers a computationally efficient alternative to detailed plasma simulations.

Abstract

An effective theory of laser--plasma based particle acceleration is presented. Here we treated the plasma as a continuous medium with an index of refraction $n_{m}$ in which a single electron propagates. Because of the simplicity of this model, we did not need to perform PIC simulations in order to study the properties of the electron acceleration. We studied the properties of the electron motion due to the Lorentz force and the relativistic equations of motion were numerically solved and analysed. We compared our results to PIC simulations and experimental data. Keywords: Underdense plasma; Electron acceleration; Classical electrodynamics; Relativistic equation of motion; Ultrashort laser pulses