Single 100-terawatt attosecond X-ray light pulse generation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the generation of a single 100-terawatt attosecond X-ray pulse with extremely high intensity and short duration using laser irradiation on a nanofoil target, enabling new possibilities in ultrafast atomic-scale imaging.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to produce a single, ultra-intense attosecond X-ray pulse via laser interaction with a capacitor-nanofoil target, achieving unprecedented pulse characteristics.

Findings

Produced a 100-terawatt, 7.9 attosecond X-ray pulse.

Achieved intensity of 10^21 W/cm^2.

Utilized nanofoil targets to generate ultradense relativistic electron nanobunch.

Abstract

The birth of attosecond light sources is expected to inspire a breakthrough in ultrafast optics, which may extend human real-time measurement and control techniques into atomic-scale electronic dynamics. For applications, it is essential to obtain a single attosecond pulse of high intensity, large photon energy and short duration. Here we show that single 100-terawatt attosecond X-ray light pulse with intensity ${1\times10^{21}}\textrm{W}/\textrm{cm}^{{ 2}}$ and duration ${7.9} \textrm{as}$ can be produced by intense laser irradiation on a capacitor-nanofoil target composed of two separate nanofoils. In the interaction, a strong electrostatic potential develops between two nanofoils, which drags electrons out of the second foil and piles them up in vacuum, forming an ultradense relativistic electron nanobunch. This nanobunch exists in only half a laser cycle and smears out in others, resulting in coherent synchrotron emission of a single pulse. Such an unprecedentedly giant attosecond X-ray pulse may bring us to view a real attoworld.