%0 Journal Article
%T Direct Electron Acceleration with Radially Polarized Laser Beams
%A Charles Varin
%A St¨¦phane Payeur
%A Vincent Marceau
%A Sylvain Fourmaux
%A Alexandre April
%A Bruno Schmidt
%A Pierre-Louis Fortin
%A Nicolas Thir¨¦
%A Thomas Brabec
%A Fran£¿ois L¨¦gar¨¦
%A Jean-Claude Kieffer
%A Michel Pich¨¦
%J Applied Sciences
%D 2013
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/app3010070
%X In the past years, there has been a growing interest in innovative applications of radially polarized laser beams. Among them, the particular field of laser-driven electron acceleration has received much attention. Recent developments in high-power infrared laser sources at the INRS Advanced Laser Light Source (Varennes, Qc, Canada) allowed the experimental observation of a quasi-monoenergetic 23-keV electron beam produced by a radially polarized laser pulse tightly focused into a low density gas. Theoretical analyses suggest that the production of collimated attosecond electron pulses is within reach of the actual technology. Such an ultrashort electron pulse source would be a unique tool for fundamental and applied research. In this paper, we propose an overview of this emerging topic and expose some of the challenges to meet in the future.
%K radially polarized beams
%K electron acceleration
%K high-power infrared sources
%U http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/3/1/70