Effect of the plasma density scale length on the direction of fast electrons in relativistic laser-solid interactions

Phys Rev Lett. 2000 Feb 14;84(7):1459-62. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.1459.

Abstract

The angular distribution of bremsstrahlung gamma rays produced by fast electrons accelerated in relativistic laser-solid interaction has been studied by photoneutron activation in copper. We show that the gamma-ray beam moves from the target normal to the direction of the k(laser) vector as the scale length is increased. Similar behavior is found also in 2D particle-in-cell simulations.