In strong-field laser physics, ponderomotive energy is the cycle-averaged quiver energy of a free electron in an electromagnetic field.
[1] The ponderomotive energy is given by where
is the linearly polarised electric field amplitude,
is the laser carrier frequency and
In terms of the laser intensity
For typical orders of magnitudes involved in laser physics, this becomes: where the laser wavelength is
λ = 2 π c
The units are electronvolts (eV), watts (W), centimeters (cm) and micrometers (μm).
In atomic units,
If one uses the atomic unit of electric field,[3] then the ponderomotive energy is just The formula for the ponderomotive energy can be easily derived.
A free particle of charge
interacts with an electric field
The force on the charged particle is The acceleration of the particle is Because the electron executes harmonic motion, the particle's position is For a particle experiencing harmonic motion, the time-averaged energy is In laser physics, this is called the ponderomotive energy
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