Universality of comb structures in strong-field QED

TL;DR

This paper introduces a universal mechanism for generating coherent frequency and energy combs in strong-field QED processes, applicable to radiation and matter, with potential applications in gamma-ray and electron beam technologies.

Contribution

It reveals a new universal mechanism for comb generation in strong-field QED, demonstrated in nonlinear Compton scattering and pair creation processes.

Findings

Frequency combs extending into gamma-ray region

Energy combs of ultra-relativistic electrons and positrons

Universality of the comb generation mechanism

Abstract

We demonstrate a new mechanism for coherent comb generation in both radiation and matter domains, which is by using strong-field quantum electrodynamics processes. Specifically, we demonstrate this for nonlinear Compton scattering which has the potential to generate frequency combs extending towards the $\gamma$-ray spectral region as well as combs of ultra-relativistic electrons extending towards the MeV regime. Moreover, we show that coherent energy combs of positrons (or electrons) emerge in laser-induced pair creation processes such as the Breit-Wheeler process, proving the universality of the proposed mechanism.