Coherent radiation of multielectron wave packets in intense laser fields
Phys. Rev. A 113, 063105 – Published 5 June, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fs8b-ddbf
Abstract
Coherent radiation from laser-driven electron beams can serve as a light source. In this work, we investigate the coherent radiation emitted by a multielectron system interacting with a plane-wave electromagnetic pulse in the framework of strong-field QED. Using the density matrix formalism, we generalize the quantum description of the initial electron wave packets from pure states (considered in previous works) to mixed states, and derive the corresponding radiation energy spectrum. Our results reveal that the indistinguishability of electrons may suppress the radiation coherence and that the cutoff frequency of the coherent radiation is strictly limited by the position uncertainty of the wave packets. We also further explore the feasibility of introducing quantum corrections to the classical electrodynamic description of coherent radiation from multielectron systems. This work provides insights for the development of coherent Compton light sources driven by intense lasers.