Nonlocal properties of ponderomotive force in strongly nonuniform high intensity laser fields

Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan

^a e-mail: iwata@center.iae.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Published online: 15 November 2013

Abstract

In order to study the particle dynamics in strongly nonuniform and/or localized laser fields, we extend the theory of the ponderomotive force by taking into account the laser field structure up to the higher order with respect to 𝜖, the ratio between the particle excursion length and the scale length of the laser field amplitude variation. This extension is realized by keeping the rigorous phase space Lagrangian structure utilizing the noncanonical Lie perturbation up to higher orders. As a result, the equations of motion in a oscillation center coordinate is derived up to the third order of 𝜖, which include the second and third spatial derivatives of the laser field amplitude. This denotes that the ponderomotive force depends not only on the local field gradient, but also on the curvature and its derivative. The additional higher-order force originates from the nonlocal particle motion around the oscillation center, which could have an influence especially in the case of tight focusing in the level of laser wavelength.