High-Powerγ-Ray Flash Generation in Ultraintense Laser-Plasma Interactions

Abstract

When high-intensity laser interaction with matter enters the regime of dominated radiation reaction, the radiation losses open the way for producing short pulse high-power γ-ray flashes. The γ-ray pulse duration and divergence are determined by the laser pulse amplitude and by the plasma target density scale length. On the basis of theoretical analysis and particle-in-cell simulations with the radiation friction force incorporated, optimal conditions for generating a γ-ray flash with a tailored overcritical density target are found. show that the advent of the multipetawatt lasers can bring us into new regimes when the nonlinear Thomson scattering will produce the γ-ray flashes with extremely high efficiency of the laser energy conversion into the energy of γ-rays.

Charged particle dynamics in multiple colliding electromagnetic waves. Survey of random walk, Lévy flights, limit circles, attractors and structurally determinate patterns

“…Computer simulations presented in Gonoskov et al (2016), Gong et al (2017), Vranic et al (2017) show that the MCLP concept can be beneficial for realizing such important laser-matter interaction regimes as, for example, the electron-positron pair production via the Breit-Wheeler process (see Vranic et al 2017) and the high efficiency γ -ray flash generation due Charged particle dynamics in colliding electromagnetic waves 3 to nonlinear Thomson or multi-photon Compton scattering, as shown in Gonoskov et al (2016), Gong et al (2017). Another configuration for the generation of a γ -ray flash is a single laser pulse irradiating an overdense plasma target (see Nakamura et al 2012;Ridgers et al 2012;Corvan, Zepf & Sarri 2016;Levy et al 2016). The applications of the laser based γ -ray sources are reviewed in Gales et al (2016).…”

Radiation-Reaction Trapping of Electrons in Extreme Laser Fields

“…This recoil force is the origin of RRT. Several mechanisms of γ-ray generation are proposed for relativistically transparent regimes of laser-plasma interaction (see, for example, [29,30]), which predict similar characteristics of γ photons. In real experimental situations, a combination of many mechanisms may be responsible for γ-ray generation, and further investigations are needed to classify the regimes of interaction.…”

Ultra-Intense, High Spatio-Temporal Quality Petawatt-Class Laser System and Applications

“…At the laser field amplitude above , the radiation friction makes the laser-matter interaction highly dissipative. This results in the high power gamma-ray flash generation [107]. The third parameter χ e has a meaning of the ratio of EM field strength in the rest frame of the particle to the critical QED field equal to Parameters χ e and χ γ are responsible for the magnitude of the quantum nonlinear effects: when a >> 1 these effects are maximized for χ e,y ≈ 1.…”