Generation of Terawatt Attosecond Pulses from Relativistic Transition Radiation.
Phys Rev Lett
; 126(9): 094801, 2021 Mar 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33750158
ABSTRACT
When a femtosecond duration and hundreds of kiloampere peak current electron beam traverses the vacuum and high-density plasma interface, a new process, that we call relativistic transition radiation (RTR), generates an intense â¼100 as pulse containing â¼1 terawatt power of coherent vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation accompanied by several smaller femtosecond duration satellite pulses. This pulse inherits the radial polarization of the incident beam field and has a ring intensity distribution. This RTR is emitted when the beam density is comparable to the plasma density and the spot size much larger than the plasma skin depth. Physically, it arises from the return current or backward relativistic motion of electrons starting just inside the plasma that Doppler up shifts the emitted photons. The number of RTR pulses is determined by the number of groups of plasma electrons that originate at different depths within the first plasma wake period and emit coherently before phase mixing.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Phys Rev Lett
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States