Ultraintense Attosecond Pulse Emission from Relativistic Laser-Plasma Interaction

TL;DR

This paper presents an analytical model for generating ultraintense, phase-stabilized attosecond pulses during relativistic laser-plasma interactions, validated by simulations, with potential applications in ultrafast science.

Contribution

The authors develop the first explicit waveform model for attosecond pulses emitted in relativistic laser-plasma interactions, validated by PIC simulations.

Findings

Attosecond pulses have broadband exponential spectra.

Spectral phase of pulses is stabilized at ±π/2.

Model enables potential generation of isolated ultraintense pulses.

Abstract

We develop an analytical model for ultraintense attosecond pulse emission in the highly relativistic laser-plasma interaction. In this model, the attosecond pulse is emitted by a strongly compressed electron layer around the instant when the layer transverse current changes the sign and its longitudinal velocity approaches the maximum. The emitted attosecond pulse has a broadband exponential spectrum and a stabilized constant spectral phase $\psi(\omega)=\pm\pi/2-\psi_{A_m}$. The waveform of the attosecond pulse is also given explicitly, to our knowledge, for the first time. We validate the analytical model via particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for both normal and oblique incidence. Based on this model, we highlight the potential to generate an isolated ultraintense phase-stabilized attosecond pulse