- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Deciphering in situ electron dynamics of ultrarelativistic plasma via polarization pattern of emitted γ-photons

Zheng Gong*, Karen Z. Hatsagortsyan†, and Christoph H. Keitel

  • Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

  • *gong@mpi-hd.mpg.de
  • †k.hatsagortsyan@mpi-hd.mpg.de
PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 4, L022024 – Published 29 April, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L022024

Abstract

Understanding and interpretation of the dynamics of ultrarelativistic plasma is a challenge, which calls for the development of methods for in situ probing the plasma dynamical characteristics. We put forward a new method, harnessing polarization properties of γ-photons emitted from a non-prepolarized plasma irradiated by a circularly polarized pulse. We show that the angular pattern of γ-photon linear polarization is explicitly correlated with the dynamics of the radiating electrons, which provides information on the laser-plasma interaction regime. Furthermore, with the γ-photon circular polarization originating from the electron radiative spin flips, the plasma susceptibility to quantum electrodynamical processes is gauged. Our study demonstrates that the polarization signal of emitted γ-photons can be a versatile information source, which would be beneficial for the research fields of laser-driven plasma, accelerator science, and laboratory astrophysics.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (74)

  1. G. A. Mourou, T. Tajima, and S. V. Bulanov, Optics in the relativistic regime, Rev. Mod. Phys. 78, 309 (2006).
  2. C. N. Danson et al., Petawatt and exawatt class lasers worldwide, High Power Laser Science and Engineering 7, E54 (2019).
  3. J. W. Yoon et al., Realization of laser intensity over 1023W/cm2, Optica 8, 630 (2021).
  4. E. Esarey, C. B. Schroeder, and W. P. Leemans, Physics of laser-driven plasma-based electron accelerators, Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 1229 (2009).
  5. A. Macchi, M. Borghesi, and M. Passoni, Ion acceleration by superintense laser-plasma interaction, Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 751 (2013).
  6. P. Wang, Z. Gong, S. G. Lee, Y. Shou, Y. Geng, C. Jeon, I. J. Kim, H. W. Lee, J. W. Yoon, J. H. Sung, S. K. Lee, D. Kong, J. Liu, Z. Mei, Z. Cao, Z. Pan, I. W. Choi, X. Yan, C. H. Nam, and W. Ma, Super-Heavy Ions Acceleration Driven by Ultrashort Laser Pulses at Ultrahigh Intensity, Phys. Rev. X 11, 021049 (2021).
  7. W. Yan, C. Fruhling, G. Golovin, D. Haden, J. Luo, P. Zhang, B. Zhao, J. Zhang, C. Liu, M. Chen et al., High-order multiphoton Thomson scattering, Nat. Photonics 11, 514 (2017).
  8. C. S. Brady, C. P. Ridgers, T. D. Arber, A. R. Bell, and J. G. Kirk, Laser Absorption in Relativistically Underdense Plasmas by Synchrotron Radiation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 245006 (2012).
  9. C. P. Ridgers, C. S. Brady, R. Duclous, J. G. Kirk, K. Bennett, T. D. Arber, A. P. L. Robinson, and A. R. Bell, Dense Electron-Positron Plasmas and Ultraintense γ Rays from Laser-Irradiated Solids, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 165006 (2012).
  10. D. J. Stark, T. Toncian, and A. V. Arefiev, Enhanced Multi-MeV Photon Emission by a Laser-Driven Electron Beam in a Self-Generated Magnetic Field, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 185003 (2016).
  11. A. Gonoskov, A. Bashinov, S. Bastrakov, E. Efimenko, A. Ilderton, A. Kim, M. Marklund, I. Meyerov, A. Muraviev, and A. Sergeev, Ultrabright GeV Photon Source via Controlled Electromagnetic Cascades in Laser-Dipole Waves, Phys. Rev. X 7, 041003 (2017).
  12. J. Magnusson, A. Gonoskov, M. Marklund, T. Z. Esirkepov, J. K. Koga, K. Kondo, M. Kando, S. V. Bulanov, G. Korn, and S. S. Bulanov, Laser-Particle Collider for Multi-GeV Photon Production, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 254801 (2019).
  13. X.-L. Zhu, M. Chen, S.-M. Weng, T.-P. Yu, W.-M. Wang, F. He, Z.-M. Sheng, P. McKenna, D. A. Jaroszynski, and J. Zhang, Extremely brilliant GeV γ-rays from a two-stage laser-plasma accelerator, Sci. Adv. 6, eaaz7240 (2020).
  14. R. Ruffini, G. Vereshchagin, and S.-S. Xue, Electron-positron pairs in physics and astrophysics: From heavy nuclei to black holes, Phys. Rep. 487, 1 (2010).
  15. S. Bulanov, T. Z. Esirkepov, M. Kando, J. Koga, K. Kondo, and G. Korn, On the problems of relativistic laboratory astrophysics and fundamental physics with super powerful lasers, Plasma Phys. Rep. 41, 1 (2015).
  16. B. Gonzalez-Izquierdo, R. J. Gray, M. King, R. J. Dance, R. Wilson, J. McCreadie, N. M. Butler, R. Capdessus, S. Hawkes, J. S. Green et al., Optically controlled dense current structures driven by relativistic plasma aperture-induced diffraction, Nat. Phys. 12, 505 (2016).
  17. A. Di Piazza, C. Müller, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, and C. H. Keitel, Extremely high-intensity laser interactions with fundamental quantum systems, Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 1177 (2012).
  18. J. M. Cole, K. T. Behm, E. Gerstmayr, T. G. Blackburn, J. C. Wood, C. D. Baird, M. J. Duff, C. Harvey, A. Ilderton, A. S. Joglekar, K. Krushelnick, S. Kuschel, M. Marklund, P. McKenna, C. D. Murphy, K. Poder, C. P. Ridgers, G. M. Samarin, G. Sarri, D. R. Symes, A. G. R. Thomas, J. Warwick, M. Zepf, Z. Najmudin, and S. P. D. Mangles, Experimental Evidence of Radiation Reaction in the Collision of a High-Intensity Laser Pulse with a Laser-Wakefield Accelerated Electron Beam, Phys. Rev. X 8, 011020 (2018).
  19. K. Poder, M. Tamburini, G. Sarri, A. DiPiazza, S. Kuschel, C. D. Baird, K. Behm, S. Bohlen, J. M. Cole, D. J. Corvan, M. Duff, E. Gerstmayr, C. H. Keitel, K. Krushelnick, S. P. D. Mangles, P. McKenna, C. D. Murphy, Z. Najmudin, C. P. Ridgers, G. M. Samarin, D. R. Symes, A. G. R. Thomas, J. Warwick, and M. Zepf, Experimental Signatures of the Quantum Nature of Radiation Reaction in the Field of an Ultraintense Laser, Phys. Rev. X 8, 031004 (2018).
  20. K. Qu, S. Meuren, and N. J. Fisch, Signature of Collective Plasma Effects in Beam-Driven QED Cascades, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 095001 (2021).
  21. L. Fedeli, A. Sainte-Marie, N. Zaïm, M. Thévenet, J.-L. Vay, A. Myers, F. Quéré, and H. Vincenti, Probing Strong-Field QED with Doppler-Boosted Petawatt-Class Lasers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 114801 (2021).
  22. M. Borghesi, D. Campbell, A. Schiavi, M. Haines, O. Willi, A. MacKinnon, P. Patel, L. Gizzi, M. Galimberti, R. Clarke et al., Electric field detection in laser-plasma interaction experiments via the proton imaging technique, Phys. Plasmas 9, 2214 (2002).
  23. M. C. Downer, R. Zgadzaj, A. Debus, U. Schramm, and M. C. Kaluza, Diagnostics for plasma-based electron accelerators, Rev. Mod. Phys. 90, 035002 (2018).
  24. A. F. A. Bott, L. Chen, G. Boutoux, T. Caillaud, A. Duval, M. Koenig, B. Khiar, I. Lantuejoul, L. Le-Deroff, B. Reville, R. Rosch, D. Ryu, C. Spindloe, B. Vauzour, B. Villette, A. A. Schekochihin, D. Q. Lamb, P. Tzeferacos, G. Gregori, and A. Casner, Inefficient Magnetic-Field Amplification in Supersonic Laser-Plasma Turbulence, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 175002 (2021).
  25. A. Gonoskov, T. Blackburn, M. Marklund, and S. Bulanov, Charged particle motion and radiation in strong electromagnetic fields, arXiv:2107.02161.
  26. A. Gonoskov, A. Bashinov, I. Gonoskov, C. Harvey, A. Ilderton, A. Kim, M. Marklund, G. Mourou, and A. Sergeev, Anomalous Radiative Trapping in Laser Fields of Extreme Intensity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 014801 (2014).
  27. L. L. Ji, A. Pukhov, I. Y. Kostyukov, B. F. Shen, and K. Akli, Radiation-Reaction Trapping of Electrons in Extreme Laser Fields, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 145003 (2014).
  28. S. Bulanov et al., Charged particle dynamics in multiple colliding electromagnetic waves: Survey of random walk, Lévy flights, limit circles, attractors and structurally determinate patterns, J. Plasma Phys. 83, 905830202 (2017).
  29. A. R. Bell and J. G. Kirk, Possibility of Prolific Pair Production with High-Power Lasers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 200403 (2008).
  30. E. N. Nerush, I. Y. Kostyukov, A. M. Fedotov, N. B. Narozhny, N. V. Elkina, and H. Ruhl, Laser Field Absorption in Self-Generated Electron-Positron Pair Plasma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 035001 (2011).
  31. X.-L. Zhu, T.-P. Yu, Z.-M. Sheng, Y. Yin, I. C. E. Turcu, and A. Pukhov, Dense GeV electron-positron pairs generated by lasers in near-critical-density plasmas, Nat. Commun. 7, 13686 (2016).
  32. T. Wang, T. Toncian, M. Wei, and A. Arefiev, Structured targets for detection of megatesla-level magnetic fields through Faraday rotation of XFEL beams, Phys. Plasmas 26, 013105 (2019).
  33. Z. Gong, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, and C. H. Keitel, Retrieving Transient Magnetic Fields of Ultrarelativistic Laser Plasma via Ejected Electron Polarization, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 165002 (2021).
  34. K. Akiyama et al., First M87 event horizon telescope results. VII. Polarization of the ring, Astrophys. J. Lett. 910, L12 (2021).
  35. M. Lembo, M. Lattanzi, L. Pagano, A. Gruppuso, P. Natoli, and F. Forastieri, Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization as a Tool to Constrain the Optical Properties of the Universe, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 011301 (2021).
  36. M. Faraday, On the magnetization of light and the illumination of magnetic lines of force, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London 136, 1 (1846).
  37. F. F. Chen, Introduction to Plasma Physics (Springer Science & Business Media, New York, 2012).
  38. S.-N. Zhang, M. Kole, T.-W. Bao, T. Batsch, T. Bernasconi, F. Cadoux, J.-Y. Chai, Z.-G. Dai, Y.-W. Dong, N. Gauvin et al., Detailed polarization measurements of the prompt emission of five gamma-ray bursts, Nat. Astron. 3, 258 (2019).
  39. R. Gill, J. Granot, and P. Kumar, Linear polarization in gamma-ray burst prompt emission, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 491, 5815 (2020).
  40. S. Batebi, R. Mohammadi, R. Ruffini, S. Tizchang, and S.-S. Xue, Generation of circular polarization of gamma ray bursts, Phys. Rev. D 94, 065033 (2016).
  41. C. Bœhm, C. Degrande, O. Mattelaer, and A. C. Vincent, Circular polarisation: A new probe of dark matter and neutrinos in the sky, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 2017 (05), 043.
  42. A. Dean, D. Clark, J. Stephen, V. McBride, L. Bassani, A. Bazzano, A. Bird, A. Hill, S. Shaw, and P. Ubertini, Polarized gamma-ray emission from the crab, Science 321, 1183 (2008).
  43. A. Pukhov, Strong field interaction of laser radiation, Rep. Prog. Phys. 66, 47 (2003).
  44. Z. Gong, F. Mackenroth, T. Wang, X. Yan, T. Toncian, and A. Arefiev, Direct laser acceleration of electrons assisted by strong laser-driven azimuthal plasma magnetic fields, Phys. Rev. E 102, 013206 (2020).
  45. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L022024 for detailed numerical models, analytical derivation, and extra simulation results. The Supplemental Material includes Refs. [62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74].
  46. T. Arber, K. Bennett, C. Brady, A. Lawrence-Douglas, M. Ramsay, N. Sircombe, P. Gillies, R. Evans, H. Schmitz, A. Bell et al., Contemporary particle-in-cell approach to laser-plasma modelling, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57, 113001 (2015).
  47. B. Liu, H. Y. Wang, J. Liu, L. B. Fu, Y. J. Xu, X. Q. Yan, and X. T. He, Generating Overcritical Dense Relativistic Electron Beams via Self-Matching Resonance Acceleration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 045002 (2013).
  48. A. Pukhov, Z.-M. Sheng, and J. Meyer-ter Vehn, Particle acceleration in relativistic laser channels, Phys. Plasmas 6, 2847 (1999).
  49. B. Liu et al., Quasimonoenergetic electron beam and brilliant gamma-ray radiation generated from near critical density plasma due to relativistic resonant phase locking, Phys. Plasmas 22, 080704 (2015).
  50. V. Tatischeff et al., e-ASTROGAM mission: A major step forward for gamma-ray polarimetry, Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 4, 011003 (2017).
  51. H. Rokujo, S. Aoki, K. Hamada, T. Hara, T. Inoue, K. Ishiguro, A. Iyono, H. Kawahara, K. Kodama, R. Komatani et al., First demonstration of gamma-ray imaging using a balloon-borne emulsion telescope, Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2018, 063H01 (2018).
  52. B. Qiao, M. Zepf, M. Borghesi, and M. Geissler, Stable GeV Ion-Beam Acceleration from Thin Foils by Circularly Polarized Laser Pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 145002 (2009).
  53. M. Chen, A. Pukhov, T.-P. Yu, and Z.-M. Sheng, Radiation reaction effects on ion acceleration in laser foil interaction, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 53, 014004 (2011).
  54. M. Tamburini, F. Pegoraro, A. Di Piazza, C. H. Keitel, and A. Macchi, Radiation reaction effects on radiation pressure acceleration, New J. Phys. 12, 123005 (2010).
  55. A. McIlvenny, D. Doria, L. Romagnani, H. Ahmed, N. Booth, E. J. Ditter, O. C. Ettlinger, G. S. Hicks, P. Martin, G. G. Scott, S. D. R. Williamson, A. Macchi, P. McKenna, Z. Najmudin, D. Neely, S. Kar, and M. Borghesi, Selective Ion Acceleration by Intense Radiation Pressure, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 194801 (2021).
  56. J. Wang, M. Zepf, and S. Rykovanov, Intense attosecond pulses carrying orbital angular momentum using laser plasma interactions, Nat. Commun. 10, 5554 (2019).
  57. L. Yi, High-Harmonic Generation and Spin-Orbit Interaction of Light in a Relativistic Oscillating Window, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 134801 (2021).
  58. L. Yi, A. Pukhov, P. Luu-Thanh, and B. Shen, Bright X-Ray Source from a Laser-Driven Microplasma Waveguide, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 115001 (2016).
  59. W.-M. Wang, Z.-M. Sheng, P. Gibbon, L.-M. Chen, Y.-T. Li, and J. Zhang, Collimated ultrabright gamma rays from electron wiggling along a petawatt laser-irradiated wire in the QED regime, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 115, 9911 (2018).
  60. V. Kaymak, A. Pukhov, V. N. Shlyaptsev, and J. J. Rocca, Nanoscale Ultradense Z-Pinch Formation from Laser-Irradiated Nanowire Arrays, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 035004 (2016).
  61. T. Grismayer et al., Laser absorption via quantum electrodynamics cascades in counter propagating laser pulses, Phys. Plasmas 23, 056706 (2016).
  62. L. H. Thomas, I. The kinematics of an electron with an axis, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 3, 1 (1927).
  63. V. Bargmann, L. Michel, and V. Telegdi, Precession of the Polarization of Particles Moving in a Homogeneous Electromagnetic Field, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2, 435 (1959).
  64. R. Duclous et al., Monte Carlo calculations of pair production in high-intensity laser-plasma interactions, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 53, 015009 (2011).
  65. N. Elkina et al., QED cascades induced by circularly polarized laser fields, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 14, 054401 (2011).
  66. C. Ridgers et al., Modelling gamma-ray photon emission and pair production in high-intensity laser-matter interactions, J. Comput. Phys. 260, 273 (2014).
  67. A. Gonoskov, S. Bastrakov, E. Efimenko, A. Ilderton, M. Marklund, I. Meyerov, A. Muraviev, A. Sergeev, I. Surmin, and E. Wallin, Extended particle-in-cell schemes for physics in ultrastrong laser fields: Review and developments, Phys. Rev. E 92, 023305 (2015).
  68. Y. F. Li, R. Shaisultanov, Y. Y. Chen, F. Wan, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, C. H. Keitel, and J. X. Li, Polarized Ultrashort Brilliant Multi-GeV γ Rays via Single-Shot Laser-Electron Interaction, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 014801 (2020).
  69. Y.-Y. Chen, P.-L. He, R. Shaisultanov, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, and C. H. Keitel, Polarized Positron Beams via Intense Two-Color Laser Pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 174801 (2019).
  70. Y. F. Li, Y. Y. Chen, W. M. Wang, and H. S. Hu, Production of Highly Polarized Positron Beams via Helicity Transfer from Polarized Electrons in a Strong Laser Field, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 044802 (2020).
  71. K. Xue et al., Generation of highly-polarized high-energy brilliant γ-rays via laser-plasma interaction, Matter and Radiation at Extremes 5, 054402 (2020).
  72. A. Arefiev, Z. Gong, and A. P. L. Robinson, Energy gain by laser-accelerated electrons in a strong magnetic field, Phys. Rev. E 101, 043201 (2020).
  73. A. Robinson, P. Gibbon, M. Zepf, S. Kar, R. Evans, and C. Bellei, Relativistically correct hole-boring and ion acceleration by circularly polarized laser pulses, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 51, 024004 (2009).
  74. P. Gibbon, Short Pulse Laser Interactions with Matter (Imperial College Press, London, 2005).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 4, L022024– Published 29 April, 2022
  • Received 27 October 2021
  • Revised 15 February 2022
  • Accepted 11 April 2022
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

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. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation