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Updated: Dec 17, 2025

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
Published on: July 2, 2012
Electron trajectories associated with laser-driven coherent synchrotron emission at the front surface of overdense
S Cousens1, M Yeung1, M Zepf2,3
1Centre for Plasma Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We present an in-depth analysis of an ultrafast electron trajectory type that produces attosecond electromagnetic pulses in both the reflected and forward directions during normal incidence, relativistic laser-plasma interactions. Our particle-in-cell simulation results show that for a target which is opaque to the frequency of the driving laser pulse the emission trajectory is synchrotronlike but differs significantly from the previously identified figure-eight type which produces bright attosecond bursts exclusively in the reflected direction. The origin and characteristics of this trajectory type are explained in terms of the driving electromagnetic fields, the opacity of the plasma, and the conservation of canonical momentum.
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