Stably propagating trains of attosecond electron bunches generated along the target back

Abstract

With the help of particle-in-cell simulations, we show a stably propagating train of attosecond (10−18 s) electron bunches which are generated along the target back surface via laser-solid interactions. The electron bunches are generated by the oscillating electric fields of the surface plasma wave. Because of the combinational effects of the electrostatic field and the static magnetic field on the target back surface, the electron bunches are stably propagating along the target back surface, which means they are totally separated from the laser pulse. The averaged energy of these electron bunches is over 20 MeV, the maximum averaged density is about 6nc (where nc≈1.1×1021 cm−3 is the critical density of the incident laser), and the averaged duration is less than 200 as. Such electron bunches are easily applied to the generation of attosecond x-rays via Compton backscattering. The energy conversion efficiency from the laser to the attosecond electron bunches is about 1.5%.