Attosecond pulse generation in Thomson scattering with phase-controlled few-cycle laser pulses

Linear Thomson scattering of relativistic electrons with few-cycle laser pulses is theoretically analyzed, and the radiated energy spectra of electrons show that attosecond x-ray pulses can be supported. The influences of the carrier-envelope phase offset ϕ_CE of the incident laser pulses and of the initial phase as the electrons enter the field, ϕ_in, on the radiated x-ray pulses are studied, and the results demonstrate that a single attosecond pulse can be produced in linear Thomson scattering by using either a single-cycle laser pulse with fixed carrier-envelope phase offset ϕ_CE=0, or a few-cycle laser pulse with controlled initial phase at the electron entrance to the field ϕ_in.