Ultra-brilliance isolated attosecond gamma-ray light source from nonlinear Compton scattering

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to generate ultrahigh-brilliance, attosecond gamma-ray pulses using nonlinear Compton scattering and wakefield acceleration, enabling unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution for nuclear physics research.

Contribution

It introduces the first reported method to produce attosecond gamma-ray sources with current laser technology, achieving record-breaking photon brilliance and duration.

Findings

Generated > 2×10^24 photons s^-1 mm^-2 mrad^-2 per 0.1% BW

Produced gamma-ray pulses shorter than 200 attoseconds

Achieved gamma-ray energies exceeding 3 MeV

Abstract

The explosion in attosecond technology has opened the gate to investigating many unexplored areas which require ultrahigh spatial and temporal resolution. In the area of nuclear physics, using gamma-rays with ultrahigh resolution in time and space will help to investigate intra-nuclear dynamics in an unprecedentedly explicit way. However, the generation of ultrahigh brilliance attosecond gamma-ray pulses with current-generation laser facilities has not been reported. In this letter, we propose a novel method to generate high charge (~1nC) attosecond (<200 attosecond) electron bunch by the near-threshold self-injection in a wakefield accelerator. We demonstrate the ability to generate an ultrahigh-brilliance (> 2*1024 photons s-1mm-2mrad-2 per 0.1%BW) attosecond (<200 attosecond) gamma-ray (Emax > 3 MeV) pulse via nonlinear Compton scattering. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method reported to generate attosecond gamma-ray photon source using current-generation laser. This is the shortest gamma-ray photon and the highest brilliance photon source in MeV range (orders higher than the results reported). This method can be widely applied for experimental generation of 100 keV to several MeV high brilliance attosecond gamma-ray sources with current ~100 TW laser facilities, which will benefit basic science such as application in ultra-high resolution radiography.