Collimation, compression and acceleration of isotropic hot positrons by an intense vortex laser

Abstract

Laser-driven positron sources, characterized by short pulse width, small focal spot and high energy, are promising for potential applications, e.g. electron–positron collider and positron annihilation spectroscopy. However, the broad divergence angle and wide pulse width during the laser-driven positron transport are extremely unfavorable for achieving high spatiotemporal resolution. In this paper, we propose a novel method to manipulate the positrons by using a left-hand circularly-polarized Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) laser pulse. Using the LG laser with a intensity of 1.2 × 10 21 W c m − 2 and a duration of a few cycles, three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that isotropic hot positrons can be effectively captured, collimated, compressed, and accelerated due to the unique field structure of the LG laser. A high-quality positron bunch is obtained with a peak divergence angle of 1∘, an average pulse duration of 0.5 fs, a maximum energy of 450 MeV, and a density of 70 times that of the initial electron source. A damping vibration model is also formulated to explain qualitatively the quality improvement of the positrons.