Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Article number | 023111 |
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 02/2016 |
<mark>Journal</mark> | Physics of Plasmas |
Issue number | 2 |
Volume | 23 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Publication Status | Published |
Early online date | 16/02/16 |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
An electron irradiated by a linearly polarized relativistic intensity laser pulse in a cylindrical plasma channel can gain significant energy from the pulse. The laser electric and magnetic fields drive electron oscillations in a plane making it natural to expect the electron trajectory to be flat. We show that strong modulations of the relativistic gamma-factor associated with the energy enhancement cause the free oscillations perpendicular to the plane of the driven motion to become unstable. As a consequence, out of plane displacements grow to become comparable to the amplitude of the driven oscillations and the electron trajectory becomes essentially three-dimensional, even if at an early stage of the acceleration it was flat. The development of the instability profoundly affects the x-ray emission, causing considerable divergence of the radiation perpendicular to the plane of the driven oscillations, while also reducing the overall emitted energy. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.