Limitations on the attainable intensity of high power lasers

It is shown that even a single e- e+ pair created by a superstrong laser field in vacuum would cause development of an avalanchelike QED cascade which rapidly depletes the incoming laser pulse. This confirms Bohr's old conjecture that the electric field of the critical QED strength E(S) = m2c3/...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2010-08, Vol.105 (8), p.080402-080402, Article 080402
Main Authors: Fedotov, A M, Narozhny, N B, Mourou, G, Korn, G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
LASER RADIATION
LEPTONS
LIMITING VALUES
MATTER
Optics
Physics
PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
POSITRONS
PULSES
QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
RADIATIONS
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Summary:It is shown that even a single e- e+ pair created by a superstrong laser field in vacuum would cause development of an avalanchelike QED cascade which rapidly depletes the incoming laser pulse. This confirms Bohr's old conjecture that the electric field of the critical QED strength E(S) = m2c3/eℏ could never be created.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.105.080402