Ponderomotive acceleration of electrons by an ultrashort laser pulse

By using the corrected solutions for an ultrashort laser pulse, we study the laser-driven electron violent acceleration in vacuum. Our simulations demonstrate that an ultrashort laser pulse with an intensity a₀≡eE₀/m_eωc=3 can accelerate electrons to an energy more than 0.5 GeV. The scaling laws for the net energy gain in different pulse length and laser radius at focus are also studied. Its acceleration mechanism is found to be ponderomotive acceleration.