Acceleration of ultra-thin electron layer. Analytical treatment compared with 1D-PIC simulation

TL;DR

This paper presents an analytical model for accelerating ultra-thin electron layers using a single-cycle laser pulse, validated against 1D-PIC simulations, relevant for creating relativistic mirrors in coherent backscattering.

Contribution

The paper introduces an analytical approach that accurately describes electron layer acceleration, complementing and validating simulation results for short laser pulse interactions.

Findings

Analytical model closely matches 1D-PIC simulation results.

Model effectively predicts electron layer acceleration over a few laser periods.

Results support the use of this model for designing relativistic mirrors.

Abstract

In this paper, we apply an analytical model [V.V. Kulagin et al., Phys. Plasmas 14,113101 (2007)] to describe the acceleration of an ultra-thin electron layer by a schematic single-cycle laser pulse and compare with one-dimensional particle-in-cell (1D-PIC) simulations. This is in the context of creating a relativistic mirror for coherent backscattering and supplements two related papers in this EPJD volume. The model is shown to reproduce the 1D-PIC results almost quantitatively for the short time of a few laser periods sufficient for the backscattering of ultra-short probe pulses.