Collimated electron sheet driven by an intense Laguerre–Gaussian pulse

A collimated electron sheet is generated by using an intense circularly polarized (CP) Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) laser to irradiate the plasma in three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is found that the CP LGpl(p=0, l=1, σz=1) laser provides a more stable vortex force to ensure the concentrated transport of electrons as compared to a linearly polarized LG laser. Herein, the effects of the laser intensity, target density, and preplasma on collimated sheet formation are discussed in detail. Such collimated electron sheets may be potentially used in various applications such as the generation of vortex radiation sources and electron microscopy.