Excitation of multiple wakefields by short laser pulses in quantum plasmas

We present a theoretical investigation of the excitation of multiple electrostatic wakefields by the ponderomotive force of a short electromagnetic pulse propagating through a dense plasma. It is found that the inclusion of the quantum statistical pressure and quantum electron tunneling effects can qualitatively change the classical behavior of the wakefield. In addition to the well-known plasma oscillation wakefield, with a wavelength of the order of the electron skin depth (lambda(e) = c/omega(pe), which in a dense plasma is of the order of several nanometers, where c is the speed of light in vacuum and omega(pe) is the electron plasma frequency), wakefields in dense plasmas with a shorter wavelength (in comparison with lambda(e)) are also excited. The wakefields can trap electrons and accelerate them to extremely high energies over nanoscales. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.