title: Experimental observation of direct particle acceleration by stimulated emission of radiation.
abstract: We report the first experimental evidence for direct particle acceleration by stimulated emission of radiation. In the framework of this proof-of-principle experiment, a 45 MeV electron macrobunch was modulated by a high-power CO2 laser and then injected into an excited CO2 gas mixture. The emerging microbunches experienced a 0.15% relative change in the kinetic energy, in a less than 40 cm long interaction region. According to our experimental results, a fraction of these electrons have gained more than 200 keV each, implying that such an electron has undergone an order of magnitude of 2 x 10(6) collisions of the second kind.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel. sbanna@bnl.gov
authors.forename: Samer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Banna
authors.forename: Valery
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Berezovsky
authors.forename: Levi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schächter