Single-Shot Carrier-Envelope Phase Determination of Long Superintense Laser Pulses

The impact of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of an intense multicycle laser pulse on the radiation of an electron beam during nonlinear Compton scattering is investigated. We have identified a CEP effect specific to the ultrarelativistic regime. When the electron beam counterpropagates with the laser pulse, pronounced high-energy x-ray double peaks emerge near the backward direction relative to the initial electron motion. This is achieved in the relativistic interaction domain, where both the electron energy is required to be lower than for the electron reflection condition at the laser peak and the stochasticity effects in the photon emission need to be weak. The asymmetry parameter of the double peaks in the angular radiation distribution is shown to serve as a sensitive measure for the CEP of up to 10-cycle long laser pulses and can be applied for the characterization of extremely strong laser pulses in present and near future laser facilities.