Ultra-bright GeV photon source via controlled electromagnetic cascades in laser-dipole waves
Abstract
One aim of upcoming high-intensity laser facilities is to provide new high-flux gamma-ray sources. Electromagnetic cascades may serve for this, but are known to limit both field strengths and particle energies, restricting efficient production of photons to sub-GeV energies. Here we show how to create a directed GeV photon source, enabled by a controlled interplay between the cascade and anomalous radiative trapping. Using advanced 3D QED particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and analytic estimates, we show that the concept is feasible for planned peak powers of 10 PW level. A higher peak power of 40 PW can provide photons with GeV energies in a well-collimated 3 fs beam, achieving peak brilliance ph smradmm/0.1BW. Such a source would be a powerful tool for studying fundamental electromagnetic and nuclear processes.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1610.06404,
title = {Ultra-bright GeV photon source via controlled electromagnetic cascades in laser-dipole waves},
author = {A. Gonoskov and A. Bashinov and S. Bastrakov and E. Efimenko and A. Ilderton and A. Kim and M. Marklund and I. Meyerov and A. Muraviev and A. Sergeev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.06404},
year = {2017}
}