Control of Strong-Laser-Field Coupling to Electrons in Solid Targets with Wavelength-Scale Spheres
Authors:
- 23 January 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 98 (4) , 045001
Abstract
Irradiation of a planar solid by an intense laser pulse leads to fast electron acceleration and hard x-ray production. We have investigated whether this high field production of fast electrons can be controlled by introducing dielectric spheres of well-defined size on the target surface. We find that the presence of spheres with a diameter slightly larger than half the laser wavelength leads to Mie enhancements of the laser field which, accompanied by multipass stochastic heating of the electrons, leads to significantly enhanced hard x-ray yield and temperature.Keywords
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