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arXiv · 2012.06408

Generation of attosecond electron bunches and X-ray pulses from few-cycle femtosecond laser pulses

Julien Ferri·Vojtech Horný·Tünde Fülöp
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Abstract

Laser-plasma electron accelerators can be used to produce high-intensity X-rays, as electrons accelerated in wakefields emit radiation due to betatron oscillations.Such X-ray sources inherit the features of the electron beam; sub-femtosecond electron bunches produce betatron sources of the same duration, which in turn allow probing matter on ultrashort time scales. In this paper we show, via Particle-in-Cell simulations, that attosecond electron bunches can be obtained using low-energy, ultra-short laser beams both in the self-injection and the controlled injection regimes at low plasma densities. However, only in the controlled regime does the electron injection lead to a stable, isolated attosecond electron bunch. Such ultrashort electron bunches are shown to emit attosecond X-ray bursts with high brilliance

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Julien Ferri, Vojtech Horný, Tünde Fülöp. 2020-12-11. Generation of attosecond electron bunches and X-ray pulses from few-cycle femtosecond laser pulses. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/abe885

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