Generating Quasi-Single-Cycle Relativistic Laser Pulses by Laser-Foil Interaction

Journal Article · Fri Nov 20 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.215005· OSTI ID:21370858

Ji, L L; Shen, B F; Zhang, X M; Wang, F C; Jin, Z Y; Xia, C Q; Wen, M; Wang, W P; Xu, J C ^[1]; Yu, M Y ^[2]

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1. State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Post Office Box 800-211, Shanghai 201800 (China)
2. Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 (China)

A scheme for producing nearly single-cycle relativistic laser pulses is proposed. When a laser pulse interacts with an overdense thin foil, because of self-consistent nonlinear modulation, the latter will be more transparent to the more intense part of the laser, so that a transmitted pulse can be much shorter than the incident pulse. Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation and analytical modeling, it is found that a transmitted pulse of duration 4 fs and peak intensity 3x10{sup 20} W/cm{sup 2} can be generated from a circularly polarized laser pulse. The intensity of the resulting pulse is only limited by that of the incident pulse, since this scheme involves only laser-plasma interaction.

• OSTI ID: 21370858
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 21; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.215005; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
FOILS
LASERS
MODULATION
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PULSES
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SIMULATION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ENERGY RANGE