Nonlinear generation of ultra-short electromagnetic pulses in plasmas

When a low-frequency relativistic soliton interacts with the electron density modulations of a wake plasma wave, part of the soliton electromagnetic energy is reflected in the form of an extremely short and ultraintense electromagnetic pulse. By computing analytically the spectra of the reflected and of the transmitted electromagnetic pulses, we show that the reflected wave has the form of a single cycle attosecond pulse.