Extensive study of electron acceleration by relativistic surface plasmons

Year: 2018

Authors: Cantono G., Sgattoni A., Fedeli L., Garzella D., Réau F., Riconda C., Macchi A., Ceccotti T.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Paris Saclay, CEA Saclay, CNRS, CEA,LIDYL, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette, France; Univ Paris Sud Paris, F-91400 Orsay, France; Natl Res Council CNR INO, A Gozzini Unit, Natl Inst Opt, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; Univ Pisa, Enrico Fermi Dept Phys, I-56127 Pisa, Italy; LULI UPMC Sorbonne Univ, CNRS, CEA, Ecole Polytech, F-75005 Paris, France; UPMC Sorbonne Univ, CNRS, Observ Paris, LESIA, F-92195 Meudon, France; Politecn Milan, Dept Energy, I-20133 Milan, Italy.

Abstract: The excitation of surface plasmons with ultra-intense (I ∼ 5 × 1019 W/cm2), high contrast (∼1012) laser pulses on periodically modulated solid targets has been recently demonstrated to produce collimated bunches of energetic electrons along the target surface [Fedeli et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 015001 (2016)]. Here, we report an extensive experimental and numerical study aimed to a complete characterization of the acceleration mechanism, demonstrating its robustness and promising characteristics for an electron source. By comparing different grating structures, we identify the relevant parameters to optimize the acceleration and obtain bunches of ∼650 pC of charge at several MeV of energy with blazed gratings.

Journal/Review: PHYSICS OF PLASMAS

Volume: 25 (3)      Pages from: 31907-1  to: 31907-9

More Information: We acknowledge M. Kveton (HoloPlus, Prague, Czech Republic) for the prompt and accurate manufacturing of the thin gratings; Jean-Philippe Larbre (ELYSE, Universite Paris Sud, Orsay, France) for his contribution during the calibration of the Lanex screen; the computational support from HPC Cluster CNAF (Bologna, Italy), with particular thanks to S. Sinigardi for his precious assistance; and F. Amiranoff (LULI, UPMC, Paris, France) for the invaluable discussions on the theory of SP excitation and electron acceleration. G.C. acknowledges financial support from the Universite Franco-Italienne (Vinci program 2015, Grant No. C2-92).
KeyWords: plasmonics; high field science; electron acceleration; ultrafast electron sources;
DOI: 10.1063/1.5017706

Citations: 20
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