Pulse shape effects on the electron-positron pair production in strong laser fields

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different laser pulse shapes influence electron-positron pair production in strong laser fields, revealing high sensitivity of pair creation characteristics to pulse envelope shapes and phases.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of the impact of various pulse envelope shapes on pair production, highlighting the importance of pulse shape in strong-field QED processes.

Findings

Pair production characteristics are highly sensitive to pulse shape.

Resonant Rabi oscillations vary with envelope shape.

Total pair number depends on pulse envelope and phase.

Abstract

The pair-production process in the presence of strong linearly polarized laser fields with a subcycle structure is considered. Laser pulses with different envelope shapes are examined by means of a nonperturbative numerical technique. We analyze two different "flat" envelope shapes and two shapes without a plateau for their various parameters including the carrier-envelope phase. The resonant Rabi oscillations, momentum distribution of particles created, and total number of pairs are studied. It is demonstrated that all these characteristics are very sensitive to the pulse shape.