  The origin of very energetic charged particles and the production of very
high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission remains still a challenging issue in
modern pulsar physics. By applying a toy model, we explore the acceleration of
co-rotating charged particles close to the light surface in a plasma-rich
pulsar magnetosphere and study their interactions with magnetic and photon
fields under conditions appropriate for Crab-type pulsars. Centrifugal
acceleration of particles in a monopol-like magnetic field geometry is analyzed
and the efficiency constraints, imposed by corotation, inverse Compton
interactions and curvature radiation reaction are determined. We derive
expressions for the maximum particle energy and provide estimates for the
corresponding high-energy curvature and inverse Compton power outputs. It is
shown that for Crab-like pulsars, electron Lorentz factor up to $\gamma \sim
10^7$ can be achieved, allowing inverse Compton (Klein-Nishina) up-scattering
of thermal photons to TeV energies with a maximum luminosity output of
$\sim10^{31}$ erg/s. Curvature radiation, on the other hand, will result in a
strong GeV emission output of up to $\sim(10^{34}-10^{35})$ erg/s,
quasi-exponentially decreasing towards higher energies for photon energies
below $\sim 50$ GeV. Accordingly to the results presented only young pulsars
are expected to be sites of detectable VHE $\gamma$-ray emission.
