Generation of Ultra-Collimated Polarized Attosecond $\gamma-$Rays via Beam Instabilities
Abstract
Polarized attosecond rays may offer excitation and hyperfine tracking of reactions relevant to nuclear physics, astrophysics, high-energy physics, etc. However, unfortunately, generation of a feasible and easy-to-deploy source is still a great challenge. Here, we put forward a novel method for producing ultra-collimated high-brilliance polarized attosecond rays via the interaction of an unpolarized electron beam with a solid-density plasma. As a relativistic electron beam enters a solid-density plasma, it can be modulated into high-density clusters via the self-modulation instability of itself and further into attosecond slices due to its own hosing instability. This is accompanied by the generation of similar pulse-width slices via nonlinear Compton scattering. The severe hosing instability breaks the symmetry of the excited electromagnetic fields, resulting in net linear polarization of slices, which challenges the conventional perception that the interaction of an axially symmetric unpolarized electron beam with a uniform plasma cannot generate polarized radiation. In addition, we also obtain high-quality electron microbunches which may serve as an alternative source for prebunched free-electron lasers.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2405.06426,
title = {Generation of Ultra-Collimated Polarized Attosecond $\gamma-$Rays via Beam Instabilities},
author = {Li-Jie Cui and Ke-Jia Wei and Chong Lv and Feng Wan and Yousef I. Salamin and Lei-Feng Cao and Jian-Xing Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.06426},
year = {2024}
}