Laser pulse cutoff at nonlinear reflection due to Raman backscattering in plasma

A method for generating subrelativistic laser pulses with a sharp leading edge is proposed, which is based on Raman backscattering of an intense short pump pulse by a counter-propagating long low-frequency pulse propagating in a thin plasma layer. A thin plasma layer serves both to attenuate parasitic effects and to effectively reflect the central part of the pump pulse when the field amplitude exceeds the threshold value. A prepulse with a lower field amplitude passes through the plasma almost without scattering. This method works for subrelativistic laser pulses with durations up to 100 fs. The contrast of the leading edge of the laser pulse is determined by the seed pulse amplitude.