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Acceleration gradients of up to the order of 100GV/m and mono-energetic electron bunch up to 200MeV have recently been observed in several plasma cathode experiments. However, mechanisms of self-injection in plasma are not sufficiently clarified, presently. In this study, we carried out 2D PIC simulation to reveal the mechanisms of mono-energetic femtosecond electron bunch generation. We found two remarkable conditions for the generation: electron density gradient at vacuum-plasma interface and channel formation in plasma. Steep electron density gradient (~ plasma wave length) causes rapid injection and produces an electron bunch with rather high charge and less than 100fs duration. The channel formation guides an injected laser pulse and decreases the threshold of laser self-focusing, which leads to high electric field necessary for wave-breaking injection.
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