Quantum quenching of radiation losses in short laser pulses

Accelerated charges radiate, and therefore must lose energy. The impact of this energy loss on particle motion, called radiation reaction, becomes significant in intense-laser matter interactions, where it can reduce collision energies, hinder particle acceleration schemes, and is seemingly unavoidable. Here we show that this common belief breaks down in short laser pulses, and that energy losses and radiation reaction can be controlled and effectively switched off by appropriate tuning of the pulse length. This "quenching" of emission is impossible in classical physics, but becomes possible in QED due to the discrete nature of quantum emissions.