Electron acceleration by surface plasma waves in the interaction between femtosecond laser pulses and sharp-edged overdense plasmas

The relativistic acceleration of electrons by the field of surface plasma waves created in the interaction between ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses with sharp-edged overdense plasmas has been investigated. It is shown that the initial phase of the wave experienced by the electrons play a leading part by yielding a well-defined peaked structure in the energy distribution function. This study suggests that resonant excitation of surface plasma waves could result in quasi-monokinetic energetic electron bunches. When the space charge field becomes too strong, this mechanism can evolve toward a true absorption process of the surface wave energy via an enhanced "vacuum heating" mechanism generalized to the case of surface plasma waves. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.