Electron Acceleration in Relativistic Plasma Waves Generated by a Single Frequency Short-Pulse Laser

Experimental evidence for the acceleration of electrons in a relativistic plasma wave generated by Raman forward scattering (SRS-F) of a single-frequency short pulse laser are presented. A 1.053 pm, 600 fsec, 5 TW laser was focused into a gas jet with a peak intensity of 8x1017 W/cm2. At a plasma density of 2x1019 2 MeV electrons were detected and their appearance was correlated with the anti-Stokes laser sideband generated by SRS-F. The results are in good agreement with 2-D PIC simulations. The use of short pulse lasers for making ultra-high gradient accelerators is explored. I