Stern-Gerlach surfing in laser wakefield accelerators

Flood, Stephen and Burton, David (2015) Stern-Gerlach surfing in laser wakefield accelerators. Physics Letters A, 379 (36). pp. 1966-1974. ISSN 0375-9601

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Abstract

We investigate the effects of a Stern-Gerlach-type addition to the Lorentz force on electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator. The Stern-Gerlach-type terms are found to generate a family of trajectories describing electrons that surf along the plasma density wave driven by a laser pulse. Such trajectories could lead to an increase in the size of an electron bunch, which may have implications for attempts to exploit such bunches in future free electron lasers.