Brilliant petawatt gamma-ray pulse generation in quantum electrodynamic laser-plasma interaction.
We show a new resonance acceleration scheme for generating ultradense relativistic electron bunches in helical motions and hence emitting brilliant vortical γ-ray pulses in the quantum electrodynamic (QED) regime of circularly-polarized (CP) laser-plasma interactions. Here the combined effects of the radiation reaction recoil force and the self-generated magnetic fields result in not only trapping of a great amount of electrons in laser-produced plasma channel, but also significant broadening of the resonance bandwidth between laser frequency and that of electron betatron oscillation in the channel, which eventually leads to formation of the ultradense electron bunch under resonant helical motion in CP laser fields. Three-dimensional PIC simulations show that a brilliant γ-ray pulse with unprecedented power of 6.7 PW and peak brightness of 1025photons/s/mm2/mrad2/0.1% BW (at 15 MeV) is emitted at laser intensity of 1.9 × 1023W/cm2.
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
H X
HX
Chang
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
B
B
Qiao
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
T W
TW
Huang
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Z
Z
Xu
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.|Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100094, China.
C T
CT
Zhou
Science and Technology on Plasma Physics Laboratory, Mianyang 621900, China.
Y Q
YQ
Gu
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
X Q
XQ
Yan
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom.
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M
Zepf
Center for Applied Physics and Technology, HEDPS, State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.|Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100094, China.
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He