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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
Published on: July 2, 2012
Optical Control of the Topology of Laser-Plasma Accelerators
J Vieira1, J T Mendonça1, F Quéré2
1GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal.
Abstract:
We propose a twisted plasma accelerator capable of generating relativistic electron vortex beams with helical current profiles. The angular momentum of these vortex bunches is quantized, dominates their transverse motion, and results in spiraling particle trajectories around the twisted wakefield. We focus on a laser wakefield acceleration scenario, driven by a laser beam with a helical spatiotemporal intensity profile, also known as a light spring. We find that these light springs can rotate as they excite the twisted plasma wakefield, providing a new mechanism to control the twisted wakefield phase velocity and enhance energy gain and trapping efficiency beyond planar wakefields.
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