Lasers in Eng., Vol. 17, pp.

157161 Reprints available directly from the publisher Photocopying permitted by license only

c 2007 Old City Publishing, Inc. Published by license under the OCP Science imprint, a member of the Old City Publishing Group

Massless Fermions Generated by Ultrashort Laser Pulses

M. P ELC , J. M ARCIAK KOZLOWSKA , AND M. KOZLOWSKI

Institute of Electron Technology, Al.Lotnik w 32/46,02668 Warsaw, Poland o Institute of Experimental Physics, Warsaw University, Ul. Ho_a 69,00681 Warsaw, Poland z

In this paper the interaction of ultra-short laser pulses with matter is considered. Based on the thermal Klein-Gordon equation for heat transport, the condition for the existence of mass-less fermions could be expressed. This condition is V > -, where V is the potential energy and is the relaxation time. The mass less electrons in graphene and mass-less nucleons in 2D nuclei are discussed.
Keywords: Mass-less fermions, graphene, ultra-short laser pulses, Klein-Gordon equation

1 INTRODUCTION Recent scientic developments with ultra-fast, ultra-intense lasers (UULs) have originated from the recent rapid advances in ultra-short pulse laser technology. Using the technique of chirped pulse amplication, it is n w o possible to construct table-top scale lasers with peak powers of trillions of watts (TW), pulse durations well under 100 femto-seconds (10 -13 s) and focused intensities well over 1019 W/cm2 . The large scale application of chirped pulse amplication has enabled construction of lasers with peak powers of 1000 TW, or one peta-watt. The rst peta-watt laser was demonstrated in the late 1990s at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the now decommissioned NOVA facility. Currently there are several peta-watt class lasers under construction around the world. The
Corresponding

author: E-mail: miroslawkozlowski@aster.pl

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unprecedented light intensity attainable with these lasers provides unique opportunities for research in high energy density physics. The combination of high energy density drivers (lasers and z-pinches) with high energy peta-watt laser systems can be used to create conditions and states of matter which are usually inaccessible in the laboratory. These environments, characterised by ultra-strong magnetic elds (109 T and higher) and relativistic energies (U p > m e c2 ), exist at present only in astrophysical objects and nuclear weapon explosions. At intensities between 1016 and 1020 W/cm2 , the electron interaction with photons, other electrons, ions and nuclear matter is changed. Above lO23 W/cm2 however, critical tests of quantum electrodynamics - light-light scattering and particle creation become possible. The ability of a high energy density driver to compress matter and a high energy peta-watt laser to heat, or, otherwise transform the target, has the potential to increase our understanding of relativistic collective dynamics, which supports fundamental phenomena observed in the most extreme environments in the universe. Unlike accelerators, ultra-intense laser excitation enables one to study in the laboratory many body systems and macroscopic amounts of matter at the relativistic extreme. The new millennium witnessed the culmination of a decade of work in which the measurement and manipulation of sub-femto-second or attosecond processes (l as = l O-18 s) became possible for the rst time in many research laboratories throughout the world. These UV/XUV light pulses are generated either by nonlinear frequency conversion of an ultra-short infrared pump pulse or by Fourier synthesis of broad bandwidth radiation. The physics of the generation of these pulses is based on nonlinear, non-perturbation (intense eld) laser-atom interactions. The crucial element for all atto-second pulse generation is the control of the spectral phase necessitating both analysis and synthesis of laser pulses and the XUV radiation they generate. The scientic importance of breaking through the femto-second barrier is obvious: the time-scale necessary to probe the motion of an electron(s) in the ground state is atto-seconds (atomic unit of time = 24 as). The availability of such atto-second pulses would enable for the rst time, the study of time-dependent dynamics of correlated electron systems by freezing the electronic motion, in essence exploring the structure using ultra-fast snapshots, then following the subsequent evolution using pump-probe techniques. The explicit dynamics of excited states of atoms could be followed characterising, for example, processes such as auto-ionisation or non-adiabatic transitions during atomic collisions. These pulses would also enable investigations of the dynamics of bond breaking and formation during chemical reactions. Such studies would lead ultimately to developing fundamental methods for the complete quantum control of electron dynamics. Although the scientic impact is unquestionable large, the realisation of such sources pose signicant challenges.[1], [2]

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In a seminar [3] at Manchester Professor A. K. Geim showed that in grapheme the electrons behave as mass-less fermions. Electrons full the relationship: E e = pe ve (1)

where E e is the energy of electrons, pe is the momentum and ve the speed of electrons. Eq. (1) is the dispersion relation for the relativistic particles with velocity ve 106 m/s. In monograph [4] it was shown that the absorption of thermal energy generated by ultra-short laser pulses is quantised. For the quantum of the thermal energy heaton the equation analogous to (2) holds E h = p h vh (2)

where E h is the heaton energy, ph -the heaton momentum, vh = c and = 1/137 is the ne structure constant for the electromagnetic interaction Comparing Eq. (1) and (2) we argue that the heatons are the mass-less fermions

2 THE MODEL Let us consider the interaction of ultra-short laser pulses with matter. In monograph [3] the damped Klein Gordon equation heat transport was developed 2V m 1 2T m T + 2 T = 2T + 2 t 2 v t (3)

where T is the temperature of the system, m is the mass of heat carrier, V is the potential energy and v is the speed of heat transport and is the relaxation time for thermal excitation, viz.: = , v = c mv 2 (4)

and is the ne structure constant for electromagnetic interaction, = e2 /c. The solution of equation (1) can be written as (for 1D) T (x, t) = e 2 u(x, t) After substituting equation (4) into (3) we obtain a new equation 1 u 2 2u 2 + q 2 u(x, t) = 0 v 2 t 2 x (6)
t

(5)

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where the mass term q 2 , has the form q2 = 2V m 2 mv 2

2

(7)

Equation (4) is the thermal Klein-Gordon equation. The term q 2 can be rewritten as:q 2 = 2 m 2 f f v2 where m e f f is the effective mass of the e fermion As can be seen from formulae (4) and (4) for q 2 = 0 equation (4) is the un-damped wave equation 1 2u 2u 2 =0 2 t 2 v x with V = i.e. me f f = 0 (10) 8 (9) (8)

From equation (10) we conclude that, in the general case, interplay of the scattering and potential energy creates the mass-less fermions. Recently, the Manchester Group of Dr A. K. Geim found mass-less electrons in graphenes. It seems that our description of the laser matter interaction within the damped Klein Gordon equation offers additional information concerning the strong inuence of the potential energy on the scattering processes in thermal processes. As an example let us consider the heatons temperature elds for the Cauchy problem (2D): x , y u(x, t) = f (x, y) at t = 0 u = g(x, y) at t = 0 t For q 2 v 2 < 0 w(x, y, t) = 1 2 v t 1 2 v = f (, )
vt

(11)

2D solution of the equation (7) for Cauchy problem (12) has the form:

cosh q (vt)2 2 (vt)2 2 d d

g(, )
vt

cosh q (vt)2 2 (vt)2 2 d d (12)

(x )2 + (y )2

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For q 2 v 2 > 0 1 u(x, y, t) = 2 v t 1 2 v = f (, )

vt

cos q (vt)2 2 (vt)2 2 d d

g(, )
vt

cos q (vt)2 2 (vt)2 2 d d (13)

(x )2 + (y )2

The Klein- Gordon equation (4) can also be applied to strong interactions. In this case the propagation speed is v = s c, where s is the strong coupling constant s = 0.16. In a future LASETRON proposal the mass less fermions could be investigated, for example, in super-deformed 2D nuclei. REFERENCES
[1] Papadogiannis, N. A., et al. (1999). Phys. Rev. Lett., 83, 4289. [2] Paul, P. M., et al. (2001). Science, 302, 1689. [3] Novosilov, K. S., et al. (2005). Nature, 438, 197. [4] Kozlowski, M., and MarciakKozlowska, J. (2006). Thermal processes using attosecond laser pulses, Springer.