Control of Strong-Laser-Field Coupling to Electrons in Solid Targets with Wavelength-Scale Spheres

Authors

H. A. Sumeruk, University of Texas at Austin
S. Kneip, University of Texas at Austin
D. R. Symes, University of Texas at Austin
I. V. Churina, University of Texas at Austin
A. V. Belolipetski, University of Texas at Austin
Thomas D. Donnelly, Harvey Mudd CollegeFollow
T. Ditmire, University of Texas at Austin

Document Type

Article

Department

Physics (HMC)

Publication Date

1-2007

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.

Comments

This article is also available from the American Physical Society at http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.045001.

Rights Information

© 2007 American Physical Society

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.045001

Recommended Citation

H. A. Sumeruk, S. Kneip, D. R. Symes, I. V. Churina, A. V. Belolipetski, T. D. Donnelly, and T. Ditmire, "Control of Strong-Laser-Field Coupling to Electrons in Solid Targets with Wavelength-Scale Spheres," Phys. Rev. Lett., 98, 045001 (2007). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.045001