Ultrashort high energy electron bunches from tunable surface plasma waves driven with laser wavefront rotation

Abstract

We propose to use ultra-high intensity laser pulses with wavefront rotation (WFR) to produce short, ultra-intense surface plasma waves (SPW) on grating targets for electron acceleration. Combining a smart grating design with optimal WFR conditions identified through simple analytical modeling and particle-in-cell simulation allows to decrease the SPW duration (down to few optical cycles) and increase its peak amplitude. In the relativistic regime, for $I\hat{I}{»}_0^2=3.4\times 10^{19}W/c{\mathrm{m}}^2\hat{\mathrm{I}}¼{\mathrm{m}}^2$, such SPW are found to accelerate high-charge (few 10's of pC), high-energy (up to 70 MeV) and ultra-short (few fs) electron bunches.