Engineering ultrashort pulses in infrared and upper terahertz bands using a laser pulse and a nanostructured target

Abstract

Characteristics of infrared and upper terahertz bands radiation in three laser-target interaction modes are found with 2D numerical simulations. A superintense laser pulse extracts electron bunches with high charge from the target and accelerates them. During acceleration, the electron bunches produce high-power electromagnetic radiation. Choosing appropriate target nanostructure, the shape of the generated pulse can be engineered and a train of such pulses can be produced with a specified distance between them. It is shown that in multiterawatt laser systems, generated pulse amplitude can be on the subrelativistic level, while the conversion efficacy can be as high as one percent.