Attosecond electron bunches.
Electron bunches of attosecond duration may coherently interact with laser beams. We show how p-polarized ultraintense laser pulses interacting with sharp boundaries of overdense plasmas can produce such bunches. Particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate attosecond bunch generation during pulse propagation through a thin channel or in the course of grazing incidence on a plasma layer. In the plasma, due to the self-intersection of electron trajectories, electron concentration is abruptly peaked. A group of counterstream electrons is pushed away from the plasma through nulls in the electromagnetic field, having inherited a peaked electron density distribution and forming relativistic ultrashort bunches in vacuum.
Naumova
N
N
Center for Ultrafast Optical Science and FOCUS Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Sokolov
I
I
Nees
J
J
Maksimchuk
A
A
Yanovsky
V
V
Mourou
G
G