Plasma Approach for Generating Ultra-Intense Single Attosecond Pulse

In our previous work, a plasma approach for single attosecond pulse (AP) generation was proposed
[17]. A few-cycle relativistic circularly polarized laser pulse will induce a single drastic oscillation of plasma boundary, from which high-order harmonics and furthermore an ultra-intense single AP can be generated naturally after it is reflected. Analytical model and simulations both demonstrate that the process is mostly efficient as the pulse duration is close to the plasma responding time. The effects of plasma density ramp are analyzed here, suggesting that the proposal is still quite efficient with appropriate density gradient in the ramp. At last, a combined approach is employed to obtain single AP with 30 fs incident laser. The relatively large-duration pulse is firstly shortened by a density dropping thin foil, and then reflected from an overdense plasma target. One-dimensional simulation shows that a 600 as single light pulse is generated with peak intensity of 3×1020W/cm².