On stochastic electron motion in colliding plane waves

The stochastic dynamics of an electron in counterpropagating linearly polarized laser beams is analyzed using a recently developed 3/2-dimensional Hamiltonian approach.

It is shown that perpendicular canonical momenta of the electron suppress stochasticity, helping to explain the results from recently reported numerical studies of stochastic dynamics in a similar setting.

The stochasticity in a perpendicular polarization setup is demonstrated.

Lastly, the impact of radiation friction effects is considered and shown to be negligible in the classical radiation reaction limit.