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arXiv · 2004.03979

Relativistic acceleration of electrons injected by a plasma mirror into a radially polarized laser beam

N. Zaïm·M. Thévenet·A. Lifschitz·J. Faure
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Abstract

We propose a method to generate femtosecond, relativistic and high-charge electron bunches using few-cycle and tightly focused radially polarized laser pulses. In this scheme, the incident laser pulse reflects off an overdense plasma that injects electrons into the reflected pulse. Particle-In-Cell simulations show that the plasma injects electrons ideally, resulting in a dramatic increase of charge and energy of the accelerated electron bunch in comparison to previous methods. This method can be used to generate femtosecond pC bunches with energies in the 1-10 MeV range using realistic laser parameters corresponding to current kHz laser systems.

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N. Zaïm, M. Thévenet, A. Lifschitz, J. Faure. 2020-04-08. Relativistic acceleration of electrons injected by a plasma mirror into a radially polarized laser beam. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.119.094801

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