A proposal to experimentally demonstrate a novel regime of electron vacuum acceleration by using a tightly focused laser beam

The trajectory of most vacuum laser acceleration schemes is a straight line and the electron beam can obtain a small net energy gain only within two times of laser-Rayleigh length. A novel regime of electron beam dynamics trajectories in intensive laser field has been studied recently. The most prominent feature of those dynamics trajectories is that the incident electron beam can be captured into an intensive laser field region in a curved trajectory, rather than expelled from it as predicted by the ponderomotive potential mode. A proposal to demonstrate a proof-of-principle experiment at Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) is presented. The key parameters to meet the experiment requirements are discussed. The preliminary simulation results using existing ATF laser and electron beam are presented.