Proposed method for measuring the duration of electron pulses by attosecond streaking

Abstract

We propose a method to measure the duration of ultrashort electron pulses. The electron pulse to be measured impinges on a solid target, causing the emission of Auger electrons through impact ionization. The energy spectrum of the Auger electrons is altered in the presence of an intense femtosecond laser field. Due to the extremely short lifetime of the Auger effect, this effect can be used to generate cross correlation between a laser and an electron pulse. The method is applicable to electron pulses ranging from hundreds of attoseconds to hundreds of femtoseconds in duration, and for a few hundreds of electron volts to relativistic energies. © 2008 The American Physical Society.