  The interaction of two laser pulses in an underdense plasma has proven to be
able to inject electrons in plasma waves, thus providing a stable and tunable
source of electrons. Whereas previous works focused on the "beatwave" injection
scheme in which two lasers with the same polarization collide in a plasma, this
present letter studies the effect of polarization and more specifically the
interaction of two colliding cross-polarized laser pulses. It is shown both
theoretically and experimentally that electrons can also be pre-accelerated and
injected by the stochastic heating occurring at the collision of two
cross-polarized lasers and thus, a new regime of optical injection is
demonstrated. It is found that injection with cross-polarized lasers occurs at
higher laser intensities.
