Physicists from the Max Planck institute for quantum optics, the university of Munich in Germany and the university of umoo in Sweden have for the first time used a plasma of relativistic electrons to generate isolated, high-intensity attosecond laser pulses, foreign media reported.
When the density of electrons accelerates close to the speed of light, it ACTS as a reflector. The team said the “plasma mirror” could be used to manipulate light. Physicists have detailed the mirror-like effect of plasma and used it to generate isolated, high-intensity attosecond pulses of light.
“The interaction of extremely powerful laser pulses with matter has opened up a whole new way to form ultrashort flashes of light that last only a few hundred attoseconds,” the scientists said. And these ultrashort pulses can be used to detect the dynamics of ultrafast physics at subatomic scales.”
A new method
The traditional way to generate attosecond pulses is through near-infrared laser interactions with electrons in atoms of an inert gas such as neon or argon. But this study offers a new strategy for generating isolated attosecond pulses.
First, a very powerful femtosecond laser pulse interacts with the glass. The laser vaporizes the surface of the glass, ionizes its constituent atoms and accelerates the released electrons to a respectable fraction of the speed of light. A dense plasma of fast-moving electrons travels in the same direction as a pulsed laser, like a mirror. Once electrons travel close to the speed of light, they become relativistic and start oscillating because of the laser field. The periodic deformation of the plasma mirror then interacts with the reflected light waves to produce isolated attosecond pulses. These pulses have a duration of about 200 attoseconds.
Compared with attosecond pulses generated by longer laser pulses, laser pulses generated by plasma mirror effect with shorter optical cycle duration can be precisely controlled by waveform. This allowed the researchers to observe the timing of the pulse formation and the oscillations in the plasma mirror. In addition, these pulses are more intense and contain far more photons than standard procedures can obtain.
Strength increase
This increased intensity can be used to more accurately measure the behavior of subatomic particles in real time. Attosecond pulses are mainly used to map the motion of electrons, thus providing insight into the dynamics of basic atomic processes.
The higher the intensity of the attosecond flicker, the more information can be obtained about the motion of particles within matter. The new research could help physicists probe deeper into the quantum world by proving that the plasma mirror effect produces stronger attosecond pulses of light.