Superintense Laser-driven Photon Activation Analysis

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of using ultra-intense laser-generated high-energy photons for Photon Activation Analysis, proposing a new laser-driven method and identifying optimal conditions through simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel laser-driven PAA technique, combining theoretical, numerical, and simulation approaches to optimize parameters for material analysis.

Findings

Identified optimal near-critical materials for laser-driven PAA

Demonstrated feasibility of laser-driven PAA via simulations

Compared laser-driven PAA with conventional accelerator methods

Abstract

Laser-driven radiation sources are attracting increasing attention for several materials science applications. While laser-driven ions, electrons and neutrons have already been considered to carry out the elemental characterization of materials, the possibility to exploit high energy photons remains unexplored. Indeed, the electrons generated by the interaction of an ultra-intense laser pulse with a near-critical material can be turned into high energy photons via bremsstrahlung emission when shot into a high-Z converter. These photons could be effectively exploited to perform Photon Activation Analysis (PAA). In the present work, the possibility to perform laser-driven PAA is proposed and investigated. By means of a theoretical and numerical approach, we identify the optimal near-critical material and converter parameters for laser-driven PAA in a wide range of laser intensities. Finally, exploiting the Monte Carlo and Particle-In-Cell tools, we simulate PAA experiments performed with both conventional accelerators and laser-driven sources.