Optimizing Laser Pulses for Narrow-Band Inverse Compton Sources in the High-Intensity Regime

Abstract

Scattering of ultraintense short laser pulses off relativistic electrons allows one to generate a large number of X-or gamma-ray photons with the expense of the spectral width-temporal pulsing of the laser inevitable leads to considerable spectral broadening. In this Letter, we describe a simple method to generate optimized laser pulses that compensate the nonlinear spectrum broadening, and can be thought of as a superposition of two oppositely linearly chirped pulses delayed with respect to each other. We develop a simple analytical model that allow us to predict the optimal parameters of such a two-pulse-the delay, amount of chirp and relative phase-for generation of a narrowband γ-ray spectrum. Our predictions are confirmed by numerical optimization and simulations including 3D effects.

Conceptual design report for the LUXE experiment

“…Quantifying the emittance contribution thus requires further detailed designs considerations and investigations. An alternative path for generating mono-energetic ICS photons could be seen in using the higher harmonics from a non-linear Compton scattering source with optimised chirped laser pulses [122].…”

From local to nonlocal: higher fidelity simulations of photon emission in intense laser pulses

“…As such, the on-axis emission is broadband unless the intensity is rather low. In order to overcome this, and obtain a narrowband source of Compton 𝛾 rays even when 𝑎 0 is not small, it has been proposed to chirp the pulse in a particular way [69][70][71][72][73]. If the instantaneous frequency of the pulse varies as 𝜔(𝜙) = 𝜔 0 [1 + 𝑎 2 rms (𝜙)], then 𝑠 = 2𝜂 0 /(1 + 2𝜂 0 ) for all 𝜙 and the nonlinear redshift is perfectly compensated.…”

Higher fidelity simulations of nonlinear Breit–Wheeler pair creation in intense laser pulses

“…Further motivation for improving the accuracy of modelling strong-field QED processes at the LUXE experiment, is provided by the search for new physics. The 'LUXE New Physics search with Optical Dump' LUXE-NPOD [76] is based on a secondary production mechanism that utilises the high-energy inverse Compton-scattered photons [77] produced in the electron beam-laser collision, to produce axionlike particles (ALPs) in a beam dump further downstream of the experiment. Such a setup will be sensitive to ALPs with masses O(MeV)-O(GeV), which is a range that has attracted much attention in recent years [78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86].…”