Abstract
Compact laser plasma accelerators generate high-energy electron beams with increasing quality. When used in inverse Compton backscattering, however, the relatively large electron energy spread jeopardizes potential applications requiring small bandwidths. We present here a novel interaction scheme that allows us to compensate for the negative effects of the electron energy spread on the spectrum, by introducing a transverse spatial frequency modulation in the laser pulse. Such a laser chirp, together with a properly dispersed electron beam, can substantially reduce the broadening of the Compton bandwidth due to the electron energy spread. We show theoretical analysis and numerical simulations for hard X-ray Thomson sources based on laser plasma accelerators.
Highlights
X- and γ-ray radiation with significant spectral flux, high monochromaticity and wide tunability allows the deepening of the knowledge of the fundamental properties of materials and living systems by probing the matter on microscopic-to-nuclear scales in space and time
Positive aspects of ICSs are their sustainable cost of building and maintenance and the contained global dimension of their structure. Both can be further reduced considering the option of electron beams generated by laser plasma accelerators (LPAs)
Due to difficulties and challenges in controlling the injection process, LPA beams, at the electron charge level of a consistent fraction of nC that is interesting for Compton sources, still present a rather large energy spread ∆γ/ γ of order of several percent, compromising applications requiring a high level of monochromaticity
Summary
X- and γ-ray radiation with significant spectral flux, high monochromaticity and wide tunability allows the deepening of the knowledge of the fundamental properties of materials and living systems by probing the matter on microscopic-to-nuclear scales in space and time. One of the processes generating X-rays is the scattering between a highly relativistic electron beam and a primary radiation source in the infrared/optical/ultraviolet range This interaction is called Thomson scattering when the quantum recoil of the electron is negligible or inverse Compton scattering when quantum effects are important. Positive aspects of ICSs are their sustainable cost of building and maintenance and the contained global dimension of their structure Both can be further reduced considering the option of electron beams generated by laser plasma accelerators (LPAs). Due to difficulties and challenges in controlling the injection process, LPA beams, at the electron charge level of a consistent fraction of nC that is interesting for Compton sources, still present a rather large energy spread ∆γ/ γ of order of several percent, compromising applications requiring a high level of monochromaticity. The interaction scheme investigated here is suitable to LPA beams characterized by a high charge, relatively low emittance, small rms spot radius and relatively large energy spread, but can be applied to any acceleration scheme
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