Extensive study of electron acceleration by relativistic surface plasmons

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation into electron acceleration via relativistic surface plasmons, demonstrating robust, optimized electron bunch generation with high charge and energy.

Contribution

It provides the first extensive characterization of the acceleration mechanism, identifying key parameters for optimizing electron bunch production using different grating structures.

Findings

Achieved electron bunches of ~650 pC at several MeV energies.

Demonstrated robustness and promising features of the acceleration process.

Identified optimal grating parameters for enhanced electron acceleration.

Abstract

The excitation of surface plasmons with ultra-intense ($I\sim 5\times 10^{19}$ W/cm$^2$), high contrast ($\sim 10^{12}$) laser pulses on periodically-modulated solid targets has been recently demonstrated to produce collimated bunches of energetic electrons along the target surface [Fedeli et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 5001 (2016)]. Here we report an extensive experimental and numerical study aimed to a complete characterization of the acceleration mechanism, demonstrating its robustness and promising characteristics for an electron source. By comparing different grating structures, we identify the relevant parameters to optimize the acceleration and obtain bunches of $\sim 650$ pC of charge at several MeV of energy with blazed gratings.