Manipulation of γ-ray polarization in Compton scattering

Abstract

High-brilliance high-polarization γ rays based on Compton scattering are of great significance in broad areas, such as nuclear physics, high-energy physics, astrophysics, etc. However, the transfer mechanism of spin angular momentum in the transition from linear through weakly into strongly nonlinear processes is still unclear, which severely limits the simultaneous control of brilliance and polarization of high-energy γ rays. In this work, we clarify the transfer mechanism in the transition regions and put forward a clear way to efficiently manipulate the polarization of emitted photons. We find that to simultaneously generate high-energy, high-brilliance, and high-polarization γ rays, it is better to increase the laser intensity for the initially spin-polarized electron beam. However, for the case of employing the initially spin-nonpolarized electron beam, in addition to increasing laser intensity, it is also necessary to increase the energy of the electron beam. Because the γ photon polarization emitted through the single-photon absorption channel is mainly attributed to the spin transfer of laser photons, while in multi-photon absorption channels, the electron spin plays a major role. Moreover, we confirm that the signature of γ-ray polarization can be applied to observing the nonlinear effects (multi-photon absorption) of Compton scattering with moderate-intensity laser facilities.