QED cascade saturation in extreme high fields

Luo, Wen; Liu, Weiyuan; Yuan, Tao; Chen, Min; Yu, Jingyi; Li, Fei-Yu; Sorbo, Dario Del; Ridgers, C. P.; Sheng, Z. M.

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26785-8

Cited by 35 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…This will also allow us to identify the cascading regimes and their dependence on target density. Similar scalings have been presented previously for cascading from a very low initial electron density [10] and for a cascade in in initially underdense plasma [25,35]. Here we extend this to include the case of an initially near-critical density or overdense plasma to enable us to explore density space fully.…”

Section: Semi-analytical Scaling For the Pair Plasma Densitysupporting

confidence: 57%

“…Recently Grismayer et al [10] derived semi-analytical scalings for the growth of the cascade from a small number of seed electrons. This has been extended to include cascades from an initially underdense plasma by Luo et al [35] and Del Sorbo et al [25]. The latter cases, where the seed is an initially present electron-ion plasma, is far more likely to be realised in experiments.…”

Section: Identifying the Cascade Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identifying the electron–positron cascade regimes in high-intensity laser-matter interactions

2019

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Strong-field quantum electrodynamics predicts electron-seeded electron-positron pair cascades when the electric field in the rest-frame of the seed electron approaches the Sauter-Schwinger field, i.e. h =Ẽ E 1 S RF . Electrons in the focus of next generation multi-PW lasers are expected to reach this threshold. We identify three distinct cascading regimes in the interaction of counter-propagating, circularly-polarised laser pulses with a thin foil by performing a comprehensive scan over the laser intensity (from 10 23 to 5×10 24 W cm −2 ) and initial foil target density (from 10 26 to 10 31 m −3 ). For low densities and intensities the number of pairs grows exponentially. If the intensity and target density are high enough the number density of created pairs reaches the relativistically-corrected critical density, the pair plasma efficiently absorbs the laser energy (through radiation reaction) and the cascade saturates. If the initial density is too high, such that the initial target is overdense, the cascade is suppressed by the skin effect. We derive a semi-analytical model which predicts that dense pair plasmas are endemic features of these interactions for intensities above 10 24 W cm −2 provided the target's relativistic skin-depth is longer than the laser wavelength. Further, it shows that pair production is maximised in near-critical-density targets, providing a guide for near-term experiments.S RF . We can reach η∼1 for laser fields much weaker than E S as the fields themselves can rapidly accelerate electrons to high Lorentz factor, resulting in a strong Lorentz boost to E RF . Pair production by the multi-photon Breit-Wheeler process can occur if the photons emitted during Compton scattering satisfy a similar condition on their quantum efficiency parameter (defined below) χ∼1. An electromagnetic cascade can ensue if many generations of electrons and positrons can be generated by the fields. Usually this occurs via a two-step process whereby the electrons and positrons produced by the Breit-Wheeler process radiate photons by nonlinear Compton scattering which subsequently decay to further pairs and so on.Upcoming facilities, like several of those comprising the extreme light infrastructure (ELI) [1,2], are expected to reach laser intensities of > -

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Section: Semi-analytical Scaling For the Pair Plasma Densitysupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Identifying the Cascade Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying the electron–positron cascade regimes in high-intensity laser-matter interactions

2019

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“…Theoretical simulations [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] guide the experiments and predict copious electron-positron and Gamma-photon generation from the collision of two focused pulses with intensities ranging from I = 10 22 W/cm 2 to 10 23 W/cm 2 and to 10 24 W/cm 2 . The targets used in simulations are solid thin foils or cones filled with near-critical plasmas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Courtesy X-L. Zhu and T-P. Yu. ) pairs and very high laser energy conversion efficiency to hard Gamma photons [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] .…”

Section: Simulation Of Copious Electron-positron Pair Production Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantum electrodynamics experiments with colliding petawatt laser pulses

Turcu

Shen

Neely

et al. 2019

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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A new generation of high power laser facilities will provide laser pulses with extremely high powers of 10 petawatt (PW) and even 100 PW, capable of reaching intensities of $10^{23}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$ in the laser focus. These ultra-high intensities are nevertheless lower than the Schwinger intensity $I_{S}=2.3\times 10^{29}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$ at which the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) predicts that a large part of the energy of the laser photons will be transformed to hard Gamma-ray photons and even to matter, via electron–positron pair production. To enable the investigation of this physics at the intensities achievable with the next generation of high power laser facilities, an approach involving the interaction of two colliding PW laser pulses is being adopted. Theoretical simulations predict strong QED effects with colliding laser pulses of ${\geqslant}10~\text{PW}$ focused to intensities ${\geqslant}10^{22}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$.

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Development of gated fiber detectors for laser-induced strong electromagnetic pulse environments

Zhao

et al. 2021

NUCL SCI TECH

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With the development of laser technologies, nuclear reactions can happen in high-temperature plasma environments induced by lasers and have attracted a lot of attention from different physical disciplines. However, studies on nuclear reactions in plasma are still limited by detecting technologies. This is mainly due to the fact that extremely high electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) can also be induced when high-intensity lasers hit targets to induce plasma, and then cause dysfunction of many types of traditional detectors. Therefore, new particle detecting technologies are highly needed. In this paper, we report a recently developed gated fiber detector which can be used in harsh EMP environments. In this prototype detector, scintillating photons are coupled by fiber and then transferred to a gated photomultiplier tube which is located far away from the EMP source and shielded well. With those measures, the EMPs can be avoided which may result that the device has the capability to identify a single event of nuclear reaction products generated in laser-induced plasma from noise EMP backgrounds. This new type of detector can be widely used as a time-of-flight (TOF) detector in high-intensity laser nuclear physics experiments for detecting neutrons, photons, and other charged particles.

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QED cascade saturation in extreme high fields

Cited by 35 publications

References 45 publications

Identifying the electron–positron cascade regimes in high-intensity laser-matter interactions

Identifying the electron–positron cascade regimes in high-intensity laser-matter interactions

Quantum electrodynamics experiments with colliding petawatt laser pulses

Development of gated fiber detectors for laser-induced strong electromagnetic pulse environments

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