Quantum Radiation Reaction in Laser–Electron-Beam Collisions

Abstract

It is possible using current high-intensity laser facilities to reach the quantum radiation reaction regime for energetic electrons. An experiment using a wakefield accelerator to drive GeV electrons into a counterpropagating laser pulse would demonstrate the increase in the yield of high-energy photons caused by the stochastic nature of quantum synchrotron emission: we show that a beam of ${10}^{9}$ 1 GeV electrons colliding with a 30 fs laser pulse of intensity ${10}^{22}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{W}\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ will emit 6300 photons with energy greater than 700 MeV, $60\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}$ the number predicted by classical theory.