Abstract
The important process of laser-driven recollisions, where electrons are accelerated by strong laser fields and return to their parent ions, breaks down if the laser intensities imply relativistic electron dynamics. In this case, the Lorentz force drags the electrons away in the laser propagation direction, which inhibits recollisions. Here, a variety of schemes are discussed and compared which generalize the concept of recollisions to the relativistic regime. Additional static electric fields, antisymmetric initial states, and tailored laser pulses are suitable for weakly to moderately relativistic energies, whereas standing waves, preaccelerated ions, positronium, and counterpropagating consecutive pulses allow for recollisions up to the highly relativistic regime.
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This method is known as phase-space averaging; see e.g. M. Gajda et al., [19].
This expression can be rewritten as the superposition of two propagating waves by applying the appropriate trigonometric identities.
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