Extensive study of electron acceleration by relativistic surface plasmons

The excitation of surface plasmons with ultra-intense (I similar to 5 x 10(19) W/cm(2)), high contrast (similar to 10(12)) laser pulses on periodically modulated solid targets has been recently demonstrated to produce collimated bunches of energetic electrons along the target surface [Fedeli et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 015001 (2016)]. Here, we report an extensive experimental and numerical study aimed to a complete characterization of the acceleration mechanism, demonstrating its robustness and promising characteristics for an electron source. By comparing different grating structures, we identify the relevant parameters to optimize the acceleration and obtain bunches of similar to 650 pC of charge at several MeV of energy with blazed gratings. Published by AIP Publishing.