Relativistic plasma control for single attosecond pulse generation: Theory, simulations, and structure of the pulse

The method of relativistic plasma control (RPC) for generation of single (sub-) attosecond pulses based on high harmonic generation at plasma surface is presented. Use is made of the concept of apparent reflection point (ARP), introduced for the sake of analytical treatment of the plasma dynamics. We show theoretically and numerically that managing the laser polarisation the ARP dynamics can be efficiently controlled and a single ultra-short pulse can be extracted out of the short pulse train generated by a multi-cycle driver. For the sake of future applications the structure of the pulse is studied analytically and numerically by particle-in-cell simulations.