Electron acceleration by laser plasma wedge interaction

An electron acceleration mechanism is identified that develops when a relativistically intense laser irradiates the wedge of an overdense plasma. This induces a diffracted electromagnetic wave that carries a significant longitudinal electric field and that accelerates electrons from the plasma over long distances to relativistic energies. Well collimated, highly charged (nC) electron bunches with energies up to hundreds of MeV are obtained using a laser beam with I lambda(2)(0) = 3.5 x 10(19) W mu m(2)/cm(2). Multidimensional particle-in-cell simulations, supported by a simple analytical model, confirm the efficiency and robustness of the proposed acceleration scheme.