Laser-Particle Collider for Multi-GeV Photon Production

Magnusson, Joel; Gonoskov, Arkady; Marklund, Mattias; Esirkepov, Timur Zh.; Koga, James; Kondo, Kiminori; Kando, M.; Bulanov, S. V.; Korn, G.; Bulanov, Stepan

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.122.254801

Cited by 50 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The case of optimal focussing is achieved in a dipole field [151], where the peak a 0 780P 1/2 [PW] [152]. Such extreme intensities, at moderate power, are the reason this configuration has been studied as means of high-energy photon production [153,154].…”

Section: A Geometriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiation reaction in electron–beam interactions with high-intensity lasers

Blackburn

2020

Rev. Mod. Plasma Phys.

121

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Charged particles accelerated by electromagnetic fields emit radiation, which must, by the conservation of momentum, exert a recoil on the emitting particle. The force of this recoil, known as radiation reaction, strongly affects the dynamics of ultrarelativistic electrons in intense electromagnetic fields. Such environments are found astrophysically, e.g. in neutron star magnetospheres, and will be created in laser-matter experiments in the next generation of high-intensity laser facilities. In many of these scenarios, the energy of an individual photon of the radiation can be comparable to the energy of the emitting particle, which necessitates modelling not only of radiation reaction, but quantum radiation reaction. The worldwide development of multi-petawatt laser systems in large-scale facilities, and the expectation that they will create focussed electromagnetic fields with unprecedented intensities > 10 23 Wcm −2 , has motivated renewed interest in these effects. In this paper I review theoretical and experimental progress towards understanding radiation reaction, and quantum effects on the same, in high-intensity laser fields that are probed with ultrarelativistic electron beams. In particular, we will discuss how analytical and numerical methods give insight into new kinds of radiation-reaction-induced dynamics, as well as how the same physics can be explored in experiments at currently existing laser facilities.

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Section: A Geometriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiation reaction in electron–beam interactions with high-intensity lasers

Blackburn

2020

Rev. Mod. Plasma Phys.

121

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“…In addition to the all-optical approach, the combination of a sub-PW laser beam with high-energy electrons has been considered (Magnusson et al. 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gamma-ray flash in the interaction of a tightly focused single-cycle ultra-intense laser pulse with a solid target

et al. 2022

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We employ the $\lambda ^{3}$ regime where a near-single-cycle laser pulse is tightly focused, thus providing the highest possible intensity for the minimal energy at a certain laser power. The quantum electrodynamics processes in the course of the interaction of an ultra-intense laser with a solid target are studied via three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, revealing the generation of copious $\gamma$ -photons and electron–positron pairs. A parametric study of the laser polarisation, target thickness and electron number density shows that a radially polarised laser provides the optimal regime for $\gamma$ -photon generation. By varying the laser power in the range of 1 to 300 PW we find the scaling of the laser to $\gamma$ -photon energy conversion efficiency. The laser-generated $\gamma$ -photon interaction with a high- $Z$ target is further studied using Monte Carlo simulations revealing further electron–positron pair generation and radioactive nuclide creation.

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“…Besides the use in simulations [26,27], numerical computations can also support experimental efforts to achieve high intensity, e.g., by controlling adaptive optics [28] or by retrieving information from the measured output based on the solution of inverse problem [29]. Numerical computations are also of clear interest for designing experiments [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] at the next generation large-scale laser facilities [40], where strong electromagnetic fields are likely to be reached by the combination of several, tightly focused laser pulses [41,42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimized Computation of Tight Focusing of Short Pulses Using Mapping to Periodic Space

et al. 2021

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When a pulsed, few-cycle electromagnetic wave is focused by optics with f-number smaller than two, the frequency components it contains are focused to different regions of space, building up a complex electromagnetic field structure. Accurate numerical computation of this structure is essential for many applications such as the analysis, diagnostics, and control of high-intensity laser-matter interactions. However, straightforward use of finite-difference methods can impose unacceptably high demands on computational resources, owing to the necessity of resolving far-field and near-field zones at sufficiently high resolution to overcome numerical dispersion effects. Here, we present a procedure for fast computation of tight focusing by mapping a spherically curved far-field region to periodic space, where the field can be advanced by a dispersion-free spectral solver. In many cases of interest, the mapping reduces both run time and memory requirements by a factor of order 10, making it possible to carry out simulations on a desktop machine or a single node of a supercomputer. We provide an open-source C++ implementation with Python bindings and demonstrate its use for a desktop machine, where the routine provides the opportunity to use the resolution sufficient for handling the pulses with spectra spanning over several octaves. The described approach can facilitate the stability analysis of theoretical proposals, the studies based on statistical inferences, as well as the overall development and analysis of experiments with tightly-focused short laser pulses.

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Laser-Particle Collider for Multi-GeV Photon Production

Cited by 50 publications

References 67 publications

Radiation reaction in electron–beam interactions with high-intensity lasers

Radiation reaction in electron–beam interactions with high-intensity lasers

Gamma-ray flash in the interaction of a tightly focused single-cycle ultra-intense laser pulse with a solid target

Optimized Computation of Tight Focusing of Short Pulses Using Mapping to Periodic Space

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