Light fan driven by relativistic laser pulse

Abstract

When a relativistic laser pulse with high photon density interacts with a specially tailored thin foil target, a strong torque is exerted on the resulting spiral-shaped foil plasma, or light fan. Because of its structure, the latter can gain significant orbital angular momentum (OAM), and the opposite OAM is imparted to the reflected light, creating a twisted relativistic light pulse. Such an interaction scenario is demonstrated by particle-in-cell simulation as well as analytical modeling, and should be easily verifiable in the laboratory. As important characters, twisted relativistic light pulse has strong torque and ultra-high OAM density.