We revisit the description of inverse Compton scattering sources and the photon beams generated therein, emphasizing the behavior of their phase space density distributions and how they depend upon those of the two colliding beams of electrons and photons. Main objective is to provide practical formulas for bandwidth, spectral density, brilliance, which are valid in general for any value of the recoil factor, i.e. both in the Thomson regime of negligible electron recoil, and in the deep Compton recoil dominated region, which is of interest for gamma-gamma colliders and Compton Sources for the production of multi-GeV photon beams. We adopt a description based on the center of mass reference system of the electron-photon collision, in order to underline the role of the electron recoil and how it controls the relativistic Doppler/boost effect in various regimes. Using the center of mass reference frame greatly simplifies the treatment, allowing to derive simple formulas expressed in terms of rms momenta of the two colliding beams (emittance, energy spread, etc.) and the collimation angle in the laboratory system. Comparisons with Monte Carlo simulations of inverse Compton scattering in various scenarios are presented, showing very good agreement with the analytical formulas: in particular we find that the bandwidth dependence on the electron beam emittance, of paramount importance in Thomson regime, as it limits the amount of focusing imparted to the electron beam, becomes much less sensitive in deep Compton regime, allowing a stronger focusing of the electron beam to enhance luminosity without loss of mono-chromaticity. A similar effect occurs concerning the bandwidth dependence on the frequency spread of the incident photons: in deep recoil regime the bandwidth comes out to be much less dependent on the frequency spread. The set of formulas here derived are very helpful in designing inverse Compton sources in diverse regimes, giving a quite accurate first estimate in typical operational conditions for number of photons, bandwidth, spectral density and brilliance values -the typical figures of merit of such radiation sources.
We study the possibility of producing x-gamma rays with orbital angular momentum by means of the inverse Compton backscattering between a high brightness electron beam and a twisted laser pulse. We use the classical electrodynamics retarded fields for evaluating the orbital angular momentum of the radiation and connecting it to that of the primary laser pulse. We then propose the dimensioning of a linearly polarized x-ray source with orbital angular momentum, starting from the parameters of operating Thomson setups.
We present the dimensioning of a photon-photon collider based on Compton gamma sources for the observation of Breit-Wheeler pair production and QED γγ events. Two symmetric electron beams, generated by photocathodes and accelerated in linacs, produce two gamma ray beams through Compton back scattering with two J-class lasers. Tuning the system energy above the Breit-Wheeler cross section threshold, a flux of electron-positron pairs is generated out of light-light interaction. The process is analyzed by start-to-end simulations. Realistic numbers of the secondary particle yield, referring to existing state-of-the-art set-ups and a discussion of the feasibility of the experiment taking into account the background signal are presented
A systematic study of the polarization of x-gamma rays produced in Thomson and Compton scattering is presented, in both classical and quantum schemes. Numerical results and analytical considerations let us to establish the polarization level as a function of acceptance, bandwidth and energy. Few sources have been considered: the SPARC_LAB Thomson device, as an example of a x-ray Thomson source, ELI-NP, operating in the gamma range. Then, the typical parameters of a beam produced by a plasma accelerator has been analyzed. In the first case, with bandwidths up to 10%, a contained reduction (<10%) in the average polarization occurs. In the last case, for the nominal ELI-NP relative bandwidth of 5 × 10 −3 , the polarization is always close to 1. For applications requiring larger bandwidth, however, a degradation of the polarization up to 30% must be taken into account. In addition, an all optical gamma source based on a plasma accelerated electron beam cannot guarantee narrow bandwidth and high polarization operational conditions required in nuclear photonics experiments.
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