Production of 100-TW single attosecond x-ray pulse

Xinrong Xu,Mathew Zepf,Xiantu He,Shaoping Zhu,Yuxue Zhang,Hua Zhang,Weiming Zhou,Cangtao Zhou,Bin Qiao,Brendan Dromey,Haiyang Lu

doi:10.1364/optica.385147

Abstract

Attosecond light sources have provided insight into the fastest atomic-scale electronic dynamics. True attosecond-pump–attosecond-probe experiments require a single attosecond pulse at high intensity and large photon energy, a challenge that has yet to be conquered. Here we show 100-TW single attosecond x-ray pulses with unprecedented intensity of 10 21 W / c m 2 and duration 8.0 as can be produced by intense laser irradiation of a capacitor-nanofoil target composed of two separate nanofoils. In the interaction, a strong electrostatic potential develops between the two foils, which drags electrons out of the second foil and piles them up in vacuum, forming an ultradense relativistic electron nanobunch. This nanobunch reaches both high density and high energy in only half a laser cycle and smears out in others, resulting in coherent synchrotron emission of a single, intense attosecond pulse. Such a pulse enables the capture and control of electron motion at the picometer–attosecond scale.

Highlights

Attosecond light sources have provided insight into the fastest atomic-scale electronic dynamics
We show 100-TW single attosecond x-ray pulses with unprecedented intensity of 1021 W/cm2 and duration 8.0 as can be produced by intense laser irradiation of a capacitor-nanofoil target composed of two separate nanofoils
Due to the ability to effectively reflect intense laser fields into harmonic radiation, relativistically oscillating mirror (ROM) was previously regarded as a promising route to Recently, a more efficient radiation mechanism has been identified in which a dense electron nanobunch with a δ-like peak density distribution and relativistic energy is formed outside the target, resulting in coherent synchrotron emission (CSE) [14,15,16] of XUV/x rays

Summary

Introduction

Attosecond light sources have provided insight into the fastest atomic-scale electronic dynamics. This nanobunch reaches both high density and high energy in only half a laser cycle and smears out in others, resulting in coherent synchrotron emission of a single, intense attosecond pulse.

Results

Conclusion