GENERATION OF SINGLE-CYCLE ATTOSECOND PULSES IN THE VACUUM-ULTRAVIOLET

A model for the interaction of a focused election beam and a terawatt femtosecond optical pulse has been developed which demonstrates that s ingle-cycle VUV pulses, with durations below 0.5 fs, can be generated. The ultrashort VUV pulses result from the nonlinear motion of the ele ctions in a ponderomotive force induced by a tightly focused femtoseco nd pump pulse. Our results demonstrate that the nonlinear properties o f relativistic free electrons can be exploited to generate useful sour ces of light in the VUV. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.