ABSTRACT
The generation of relativistic plasma waves using the laser wakefield or beat wave mechanism was first proposed by T. Tajima and J. M. Dawson for producing a ultra-high gradient plasma accelerator. This chapter describes some of the physics of interest in the rapidly developing field, concentrating on the generation of the large amplitude electron plasma wave by the beat wave and wakefield mechanisms of particle acceleration. It focuses on relativistic self-focusing, plasma guiding, harmonic generation and photon acceleration. The laser guiding process is particular important as intense nondiverging laser beams would be useful to deliver a large quantity of energy to small targets as well as extending the interaction region for plasma wave accelerators which are limited to a Rayleigh length. Photon acceleration is intimately related to short pulse amplification of plasma waves and is described by a similar set of equations.
