Coherent Space-Charge to X-ray Up-Conversion in Gas

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the use of the intense transverse field created by a relativistic electron bunch to drive strong-field processes. Such bunches can be easily implemented from beam shaping in existing electron accelerators. We focus on the process of strong-field driven high harmonic generation and calculate the single-atom dipole response to the space-charge field of relativistic tilted electron beam. We compare the emitted radiation spectrum of the space-charge field to that of a few-cycle laser pulse and show that the space-charge field creates a spectrum which extends much further into the X-ray domain. We apply simple classical trajectory analysis to understand this result.