Relativistically intense XUV radiation from laser-illuminated near-critical plasmas

Abstract

Pulses of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light, with wavelengths between 10 and 100nm, can be used to image and excite ultra-fast phenomena such as the motion of atomic electrons. Here we show that the illumination of plasma with near-critical electron density may be used as a source of relativistically intense XUV radiation, providing the means for novel XUV-pump--XUV-probe experiments in the non-linear regime. We describe how the optimal regime may be reached by tailoring the laser-target interaction parameters and by the presence of preplasma. Our results indicate that currently available laser facilities are capable of producing XUV pulses with duration $\sim 10\text{fs}$, brilliance in excess of $10^{23}$ photons/s/mm${}^2$/mrad${}^2$ (0.1% bandwidth) and intensity $I{\lambda }^2\gtrsim 10^{19}\text{W}{\text{cm}}^{-2}\mu {\text{m}}^2$.

11 pages, 9 figures; additional theoretical comparisons and analysis of density ramps

References in corpus (10)

• Femtosecond x rays from laser-plasma accelerators
• Theory of high harmonic generation in relativistic laser interaction with overdense plasma
• Enhanced relativistic harmonics by electron nanobunching
• Theory of relativistic radiation reflection from plasmas
• Temporal structure of attosecond pulses from laser-driven coherent synchrotron emission
• Anomalies in Universal Intensity Scaling in Ultrarelativistic Laser-Plasma Interactions
• Parametric investigation of laser interaction with uniform and nanostructured near-critical plasmas
• Prospects and limitations of wakefield acceleration in solids
• Incoherent synchrotron emission of laser-driven plasma edge
• Optimized plasma high harmonics generation from ultra-intense laser pulses

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Charged particle motion and radiation in strong electromagnetic fields
• Coherent quantum enhancement of pair production in the null domain
• Generation of attosecond electron bunches and X-ray pulses from few-cycle femtosecond laser pulses
• Mapping the power-law decay of high-harmonic spectra from laser-plasma interactions
• Controlling the ellipticity of attosecond pulses produced by laser irradiation of overdense plasmas
• Stimulated-Raman-scattering amplification of attosecond XUV pulses with pulse-train pumps and application to local in-depth plasma-density measurement
• Physics of the laser-plasma interface in the relativistic regime of interaction
• Employing machine learning for theory validation and identification of experimental conditions in laser-plasma physics