The Source of Gamma Photons in Multipetawatt Multibeam Systems of Electric Dipole Configuration

• Published in: Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute Vol. 50; no. Suppl 6; pp. S671 - S679
• Main Authors: Efimenko, E. S., Bashinov, A. V., Muraviev, A. A., Panova, E. A., Volokitin, V. D., Meyerov, I. B., Kim, A. V., Sergeev, A. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01-10-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Brightness; Configurations; Electric dipoles; Electric fields; Gamma rays; Laser beams; Lasers; Parameters; Photon beams; Photons; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Qed Processes in Strong Laser Field; Radiation; XCELS facility; QED cascade; gamma photons; multipetawatt systems; ultra-high-brightness source; multibeam configurations
• ISSN: 1068-3356; 1934-838X
• DOI: 10.3103/S1068335623180069

The possibility of developing an ultra-high-brightness photon source with energies up to several GeV based on promising multipetawatt multibeam laser systems have been studied. For a maximum photon energy to be reached and for a directed photon beam to be generated, it is proposed to use an electric dipole field structure as the main configuration, which maximizes the amplitude of the electric field in the focus region. Dependences of the characteristics of the generated gamma radiation on the number of laser beams irradiating the plasma target and their focusing are investigated. It is shown that for the laser system parameters close to the stated XCELS facility parameters and a total power of 36 PW, the maximum energy of gamma photons can reach 2 GeV, the efficiency of conversion of laser radiation into photons with an energy of more than 1 MeV is 40%, and the flux of photons with an energy above 1 GeV may approach 10
25
s
–1
. The radiation pattern of gamma radiation can be only a few mrad wide and carries information about various regimes of plasma-field dynamics in the focal region. The study thus performed has shown that multibeam multipetawatt laser systems, such as XCELS, can become the basis for constructing an ultra-high-brightness source of gamma radiation.