Laser Pulsing in Linear Compton Scattering

TL;DR

This paper presents a precise method for calculating Compton scattering spectra from pulsed laser beams, incorporating electron beam effects, and applies it to predict spectra for a proposed inverse Compton source.

Contribution

It introduces a Lorentz transformation-based approach to accurately compute Compton spectra considering laser pulsing and electron beam characteristics.

Findings

Accurate spectrum calculations including electron energy spread and emittance.

Application to predict spectra for a proposed inverse Compton source.

Method allows easy scaling estimates of the spectra.

Abstract

Previous work on calculating energy spectra from Compton scattering events has either neglected considering the pulsed structure of the incident laser beam, or has calculated these effects in an approximate way subject to criticism. In this paper, this problem has been reconsidered within a linear plane wave model for the incident laser beam. By performing the proper Lorentz transformation of the Klein-Nishina scattering cross section, a spectrum calculation can be created which allows the electron beam energy spread and emittance effects on the spectrum to be accurately calculated, essentially by summing over the emission of each individual electron. Such an approach has the obvious advantage that it is easily integrated with a particle distribution generated by particle tracking, allowing precise calculations of spectra for realistic particle distributions in collision. The method is used to predict the energy spectrum of radiation passing through an aperture for the proposed Old Dominion University inverse Compton source. Many of the results allow easy scaling estimates to be made of the expected spectrum.