Anomalous Relativistic Emission from Self-Modulated Plasma Mirrors

The interaction of intense laser pulses with plasma mirrors has demonstrated the ability to generate high-order harmonics, producing a bright source of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation and attosecond pulses. Here, we report an unexpected transition in this process. We show that the loss of spatio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2023-10
Main Authors: Lamač, Marcel, Kunioki Mima, Nejdl, Jaroslav, Chaulagain, Uddhab, Bulanov, Sergey Vladimirovich
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attosecond pulses
Emission
Extreme ultraviolet radiation
Relativistic effects
Specular reflection
Surface stability
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The interaction of intense laser pulses with plasma mirrors has demonstrated the ability to generate high-order harmonics, producing a bright source of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation and attosecond pulses. Here, we report an unexpected transition in this process. We show that the loss of spatio-temporal coherence in the reflected high-harmonics can lead to a new regime of highly-efficient coherent XUV generation, with an extraordinary property where the radiation is directionally anomalous, propagating parallel to the mirror surface. With analytical calculations and numerical particle-in-cell simulations, we discover that the radiation emission is due to laser-driven oscillations of relativistic electron nanobunches which originate from a plasma surface instability induced by collisionless absorption of the laser.
ISSN:2331-8422