Erlangen 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 3: Ultrashort Laser Pulses

Q 3.5: Vortrag

Montag, 5. März 2018, 11:30–11:45, K 0.023

Attosecond electron bunch creation in optical traveling waves via ponderomotive scattering — •Norbert Schönenberger, Martin Kozák, Timo Eckstein, and Peter Hommelhoff — Department Physik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), 91058 Erlangen

Many atomic, molecular and other condensed matter structures have not been fully studied yet at ultrafast timescales because adequate probing methods, like XUV, ultrafast electron diffraction and microscopy, are only now becoming available. Here, we report on the ponderomotive interaction of electrons with optical traveling waves and the ultrashort electron bunch trains generated after this interaction [1]. Such bunch trains could be the basis of such a probing method. In the interaction, the travelling waves are created by the superposition of two laser pulses at different frequencies intersecting at specific angles to ensure phase matching with the electrons. This technique allows for a strong energy modulation of the free electrons of 2.2 GeV/m. Even higher gradients could be achievable, as the ponderomotive force is only limited by the available laser power. Subsequent dispersive propagation of the electrons in free space causes ballistic microbunching on the sub cycle timescale. This bunching is detected via a second ponderomotive interaction at the temporal focus. Spectrograms recorded in this setup in conjunction with numerical simulations are used to determine that pulse trains of 300 as pulses are formed.

[1] Kozák, M., Eckstein, T., Schönenberger, N. & Hommelhoff, P., Nat. Phys. (2017), DOI: 10.1038/NPHYS4282.