Attosecond gamma-ray flashes and electron-positron pairs in dyadic laser interaction with micro-wire

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel laser-wire interaction scheme that produces attosecond gamma-ray flashes and dense electron-positron pairs, advancing high-energy particle source control and brightness.

Contribution

It introduces a tunable method using two high-power lasers and a thin wire target to generate collimated gamma-rays and electron-positron pairs with high brightness and short duration.

Findings

Generation of attosecond gamma-ray flashes.

Production of dense electron-positron pairs.

Control over particle beam collimation and brightness.

Abstract

The interaction of an ultra-intense laser with matter is an efficient source of high-energy particles, with efforts directed towards narrowing the divergence and simultaneously increasing the brightness. In this paper we report on emission of highly collimated, ultrabright, attosecond $\gamma$-photons and generation of dense electron-positron pairs via a tunable particle generation scheme which utilizes the interaction of two high-power lasers with a thin wire target. Irradiating the target with a radially polarized laser pulse first produces a series of high charge, short duration, electron bunches with low transverse momentum. These electron bunches subsequently collide with a counter-propagating high intensity laser. Depending on the intensity of the counter-propagating laser, the scheme generates highly collimated ultra-bright GeV-level $\gamma$-beams and/or electron-positron plasma of solid density level.