High brilliance $\gamma$-ray generation from the laser interaction in a carbon plasma channel

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that using a structured carbon plasma channel with an ultra-intense laser can produce highly collimated, high-brilliance gamma-ray beams exceeding 200 MeV, optimized at a 20 fs pulse duration, relevant for future laser facilities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using 2D PIC simulations to optimize gamma-ray generation in a structured plasma channel with ultra-intense lasers, highlighting potential for laboratory QED studies.

Findings

Gamma-ray beams with brilliance up to 10^20 s^-1 mm^-1 mrad^-2 generated.

Optimal laser pulse duration identified as 20 fs.

Photon energies exceed 200 MeV in the interaction.

Abstract

The generation of collimated, high brilliance $\gamma$-ray beams from a structured plasma channel target is studied by means of 2D PIC simulations. Simulation results reveal an optimum laser pulse pulse duration of $20\,\text{fs}$, for generating $\gamma$-photon beams of brilliances up to $10^{20}\,\text{s}^{-1}\text{mm}^{-1}\text{mrad}^{-2}\,(0.1\,\%\text{BW})^{-1}$ and photon energies well above $200$ MeV in the interaction of an ultra-intense laser (incident laser power $ P_L \geq 5$ PW) with a high-Z carbon structured plasma target. These results are aimed at employing the upcoming laser facilities with multi-petawatt (PW) laser powers to study the laser-driven nonlinear quantum electrodynamics processes in an all-optical laboratory setup.