Extend polarized ionization injection to laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA)

Determine an explicit scheme to extend the ionization‑injection–based generation of spin‑polarized electron beams, achieved with circularly polarized lasers in particle‑driven wakefield accelerators, to laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA).

Background

Prior approaches to spin‑polarized electron generation include pre‑polarizing a gas jet via photodissociation and then accelerating in a laser wakefield, but such methods require multiple lasers and suffer depolarization during injection. More refined work demonstrated creating polarized electrons via ionization injection with a circularly polarized laser into a particle‑driven wakefield accelerator. However, whether and how this ionization‑injection mechanism can be implemented in laser‑driven wakefields (LWFA) remains unresolved, motivating the need for a concrete extension.