Single zeptosecond pulse generation by scattering of a relativistic electron with an intense circularly polarized laser pulse

Abstract

The spatial, temporal and spectral emission characteristics of radiation generated from electron oscillations driven by an intense circularly polarized laser pulse have been investigated theoretically and numerically using a single electron model. The motion of an electron is highly relativistic and head-on (180° ) collision of a single counter streaming electron and an intense circularly polarized laser pulse can produce a single ultrashort zeptosecond pulse along θ = 90° by merely using a few-cycle laser pulse with fixed carrier-envelope phase offset Φ0 = 0 without controlling phase φin [5] which is defined as the phase of the laser pulse when the electron enters it. An interesting modulated structure of the spatial characteristic is observed and analyzed.