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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Creating QED photon jets with present-day lasers

Scott V. Luedtke1,2,*, Lin Yin1, Lance A. Labun2, Ou Z. Labun2, B. J. Albright1, Robert F. Bird1, W. D. Nystrom1, and Björn Manuel Hegelich2,3,4

  • 1Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
  • 2University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
  • 3Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science, Gwangju 61005, South Korea
  • 4Department of Physics and Photon Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 61005, South Korea

  • *Corresponding author: SLuedtke@lanl.gov
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Phys. Rev. Research 3, L032061 – Published 10 September, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L032061

Abstract

Large-scale, relativistic particle-in-cell simulations with quantum electrodynamics (QED) models show that high-energy (1<Eγ≲75 MeV) QED photon jets with a flux of 1012sr−1 can be created with present-day lasers and planar, unstructured targets. This process involves a self-forming channel in the target in response to a laser pulse focused tightly (f number unity) onto the target surface. We show the self-formation of a channel to be robust to experimentally motivated variations in preplasma, angle of incidence, and laser stability, and present in simulations using historical shot data from the Texas Petawatt. We estimate that a detectable photon flux in the tens of MeV range will require about 60 J in a 150 fs pulse.

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Phys. Rev. Research 3, L032061– Published 10 September, 2021
  • Received 23 June 2020
  • Accepted 9 June 2021
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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