Ultrashort high energy electron bunches from tunable surface plasma waves driven with laser wavefront rotation.

Marini, S; Kleij, P S; Pisani, F; Amiranoff, F; Grech, M; Macchi, A; Raynaud, M; Riconda, C · Phys Rev E · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We propose to use ultrahigh intensity laser pulses with wave-front rotation (WFR) to produce short, ultraintense surface plasma waves (SPW) on grating targets for electron acceleration. Combining a smart grating design with optimal WFR conditions identified through simple analytical modeling and particle-in-cell simulation allows us to decrease the SPW duration (down to a few optical cycles) and increase its peak amplitude. In the relativistic regime, for Iλ_{0}^{2}=3.4×10^{19}W/cm^{2}μm^{2}, such SPW are found to accelerate high charge (few 10 s of pC), high energy (up to 70 MeV), and ultrashort (few fs) electron bunches.