Hannover 2010 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 8: Poster I

A 8.39: Poster

Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 16:30–19:00, Lichthof

The Kapitza-Dirac effect in strong laser fields — •Sven Ahrens, Heiko Bauke, Carsten Müller, and Christoph. H. Keitel — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg

The diffraction of electrons by a standing light wave is referred to as the Kapitza-Dirac effect, which has been observed in recent experiments [1, 2] at moderate laser intensities. Current high-power lasers have relativistic intensities in the optical regime and reach short wave lengths in the X-ray range, which opens the possibility to study the Kapitza-Dirac effect in regimes, where relativistic effects become important.

The non-relativistic Kapitza-Dirac effect was studied theoretically in [3] by solving the Schrödinger equation by a plane wave ansatz, which yields the time-evolution of the electron momentum distribution. In our work, we generalize this approach and apply it to the Dirac equation. We will highlight differences between the relativistic and the non-relativistic description of the Kapitza-Dirac effect.

[1] Daniel L. Freimund, Kayvan Aflatooni, Herman Batelaan, Nature 413, 142–143 (2001)

[2] P. H. Bucksbaum, D. W. Schumacher, M. Bashkansky, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 1182–1185 (1988)

[3] H. Batelaan, Rev. Mod. Phys. 79, 929–941 (2007)