Ponderomotive acceleration of electrons by a laser pulse in magnetized plasma

Electron acceleration by a circularly polarized Gaussian laser pulse in magnetized plasma is investigated in the limit of frozen refractive index. The electron acceleration depends on the ratio of laser frequency to electron cyclotron frequency, amplitude of the laser pulse and plasma density. Near Doppler shifted cyclotron resonance the electron acquires maximum energy. In this scheme, 0.10 MeV electrons can be effectively accelerated to 1–100 MeV using moderate intensity laser pulse.