Acceleration of electrons to high energies in a standing wave generated by counterpropagating intense laser pulses with tilted amplitude fronts

The dynamics of an electron in a standing wave generated by two relativistically intense linearly polarized laser pulses with tilted amplitude fronts is studied. The analysis is based on solving numerically the relativistic Newton’s equation with the corresponding Lorentz force. A new scheme of laser acceleration of electrons by the direct action of the standing wave is proposed. It is shown that short bunches of electrons with energies reaching several GeV can be created for relativistic laser intensities.