Physics > Plasma Physics
[Submitted on 6 Dec 2023]
Title:On the generation of attosecond gigawatt soft X-ray pulses through coherent Thomson backscattering
View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:Collision between relativistic electron sheets and counter-propagating laser pulses is recognized as a promising way to produce intense attosecond X-rays through coherent Thomson backscattering (TBS). In a double-layer scheme, the electrons in an ultrathin solid foil are first pushed out by an intense laser driver and then interact with the laser reflected off a second foil to form a high-density relativistic electron sheet with vanishing transverse momentum. However, the repulsion between these concentrated electrons can increase the thickness of the layer, reducing both its density and subsequently the coherent TBS. Here, we present a systematic study on the evolution of the flying electron layer and find that its resulting thickness is determined by the interplay between the intrinsic space-charge expansion and the velocity compression induced by the drive laser. How the laser driver, the target areal density, the reflector and the collision laser intensity affect the properties of the produced X-rays is explored. Multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations indicate that employing this scheme in the nonlinear regime has the potential to stably produce soft X-rays with several GW peak power in hundreds of TW ultrafast laser facilities. The pulse duration can be tuned to tens of attoseconds. This compact and intense attosecond X-ray source may have broad applications in attosecond science.
Current browse context:
physics.plasm-ph
Change to browse by:
References & Citations
Bibliographic and Citation Tools
Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)
Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article
alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?)
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)
Demos
Recommenders and Search Tools
Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators
arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.