Isolated ultra-bright attosecond pulses via non-collinear gating

When light with relativistic intensity is incident on a solid target, bright attosecond pulses of extreme ultraviolet and x-ray radiation can be generated in the reflected beam. Unfortunately, the use of multi-cycle laser pulses results in trains of these attosecond pulses. Here we investigate a non-collinear gating scheme applied to surface high-harmonic generation to allow for the extraction of a single intense attosecond pulse from this train. Using 3D and 2D particle in cell (PIC) simulations we demonstrate that it is possible to angularly isolate a single attosecond pulse from the main driving laser pulse using this interaction geometry with intensities I > 10(20) W cm(-2). This result opens the door to generating bright attosecond pulses from relativistic plasmas without the need to spectrally filter the driving laser pulse.

Automated summary

Bright attosecond pulses of extreme ultraviolet and x-ray radiation can be generated when intense light is incident on a solid target. A non-collinear gating scheme allows for the extraction of a single intense attosecond pulse from the train of pulses.