Influence of e^{-}e^{+} creation on the radiative trapping in ultraintense fields of colliding laser pulses.

Abstract

The behavior of a thin plasma target irradiated by two counterpropagating laser pulses of ultrahigh intensity is studied in the framework of one- and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is found that above an intensity threshold, radiative trapping can focus electrons in the peaks of the electromagnetic field. At even higher intensities, the trapping effect cannot be maintained according to the increasing influence of electron-positron pair production on the laser-plasma dynamics.