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Generation of intense circularly polarized attosecond light bursts from relativistic laser plasmas

We have investigated the polarization of attosecond light bursts generated by nanobunches of electrons from relativistic few-cycle laser pulse interaction with the surface of overdense plasmas. Particle-in-cell simulation shows that the polarization state of the generated attosecond burst depends on the incident-pulse polarization, duration, carrier envelope phase, as well as the plasma scale length. Through laser and plasma parameter control, without compromise of generation efficiency, a linearly polarized laser pulse with azimuth $θ^i=10^\circ$ can generate an elliptically polarized attosecond burst with azimuth $|θ^r_{\rm atto}|\approx61^\circ$ and ellipticity $σ^r_{\rm atto}\approx0.27$; while an elliptically polarized laser pulse with $σ^i\approx0.36$ can generate an almost circularly polarized attosecond burst with $σ^r_{\rm atto}\approx0.95$. The results propose a new way to a table-top circularly polarized XUV source as a probe with attosecond scale time resolution for many advanced applications.