Eur. Phys. J. D 26, 3-6 (2003)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2003-00088-6

Compton scattering and electron-atom scattering in an elliptically polarized laser field of relativistic radiation power

¹ Institute of Theoretical Physics, Warsaw University Hoża 69, 00681 Warszawa, Poland
² Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Corresponding author: ^a Fritz.Ehlotzky@uibk.ac.at

Received: 3 November 2002
Published online: 29 April 2003

Abstract

Presently available laser sources can yield powers for which the ponderomotive energy of an electrons U_p can be equal to or even larger than the rest energy mc² of an electron. Therefore it has become of interest to consider fundamental radiation-induced or assisted processes in such powerful laser fields. In the present work we consider laser-induced Compton scattering and laser-assisted electron atom scattering in such fields, assuming that the laser beam has arbitrary elliptic polarization. We investigate in detail the angular and polarisation dependence of the differential cross-sections of the two laser-induced or laser-assisted nonlinear processes as a function of the order N of absorbed or emitted laser photons . The present work is a generalization of our previous analysis of Compton scattering and electron-atom scattering in a linearly polarized laser field [Phys. Rev. A 65, 022712 and 033408 (2002)].