Angular distribution of electrons directly accelerated by an intense tightly focused laser pulse

We report a study of spectral and angular distributions of electrons directly accelerated from an ultrathin nanofoil by a tightly focused, relativistically intense laser pulse. The approach applied is based on a realistic model describing the focusing of radiation by an off-axis parabolic mirror, the field distribution being simulated with the help of Stratton–Chu integrals. We have compared spectral and angular electron distributions for laser pulses having Gaussian transverse and rectangular intensity profiles on the mirror at the same laser pulse energy. It is shown that in the case of a pulse with a rectangular intensity profile, the energy of fast electrons is higher and the emission angles are smaller than those in the case of a pulse with a Gaussian profile.