/spl gamma/-ray production in colliding laser pulses

Summary form only given. The acceleration of charged leptons to TeV energies is a problem of considerable importance. At these energies, electroweak spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism are expected to play a dominant role in the interaction physics. Alternatively, short wavelength photons can also be used to probe this energy range, as exemplified by the /spl gamma/-/spl gamma/ collider project. We show that the combination of vacuum ponderomotive acceleration with Compton backscattering can produce high energy photons with a high intensity laser and an electron beam of relatively modest energy. In this manner, the high energy acquired by the electrons within the drive laser pulse is effectively extracted in the form of short wavelength photons by a colliding probe laser pulse, without requiring complex structures to terminate the interaction.