Direct Laser-Driven Electron Acceleration and Energy Gain in Helical Beams

A detailed study of direct laser-driven electron acceleration in paraxial Laguerre–Gaussian modes corresponding to helical beams LG 0 m with azimuthal modes m = {1,2,3,4,5} is presented. Due to the difference between the ponderomotive force of the fundamental Gaussian beam LG 00 and helical beams LG 0 m , we found that the optimal beam waist leading to the most energetic electrons at full width at half maximum is more than twice smaller for the...