High-Intensity and High-Brightness Source of Moderated Positrons Using a Brilliant gamma Beam

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel gamma-beam-based method to generate high-intensity, high-brightness positron sources with significantly improved efficiency over existing radioactive sources, utilizing advanced ERL technology and pair production in tungsten foils.

Contribution

It introduces a new gamma-beam-driven positron source setup that achieves unprecedented positron intensities and brightness, surpassing current radioactive sources by two orders of magnitude.

Findings

Achieves a positron emission rate of 2 x 10^13 per second.

Produces a high-brightness positron beam with a diameter as low as 0.2 mm.

Exceeds current high-intensity positron sources by a factor of 100.

Abstract

Presently large efforts are conducted towards the development of highly brilliant gamma beams via Compton back scattering of photons from a high-brilliance electron beam, either on the basis of a normal-conducting electron linac or a (superconducting) Energy Recovery Linac (ERL). Particularly ERL's provide an extremely brilliant electron beam, thus enabling to generate highest-quality gamma beams. A 2.5 MeV gamma beam with an envisaged intensity of 10^15 s^-1, as ultimately envisaged for an ERL-based gamma-beam facility, narrow band width (10^-3), and extremely low emittance (10^-4 mm^2 mrad^2) offers the possibility to produce a high-intensity bright polarized positron beam. Pair production in a face-on irradiated W converter foil (200 micron thick, 10 mm long) would lead to the emission of 2 x 10^13 (fast) positrons per second, which is four orders of magnitude higher compared to strong radioactive ^22Na sources conventionally used in the laboratory.Using a stack of converter foils and subsequent positron moderation, a high-intensity low-energy beam of moderated positrons can be produced. Two different source setups are presented: a high-brightness positron beam with a diameter as low as 0.2 mm, and a high-intensity beam of 3 x 10^11 moderated positrons per second. Hence, profiting from an improved moderation efficiency, the envisaged positron intensity would exceed that of present high-intensity positron sources by a factor of 100.