Electron-positron pair production from electron-laser scattering, the effect of the long pulse (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

A new generation laser system at ELI beamlines will provide a 10 PW peak power in a 150 fs laser pulse. This opens new possibilities for experiments on laser-electron scattering at extreme intensities. High energy photons (x-rays or gamma-rays) are produced through nonlinear Compton scattering, and they subsequently decay into electron-positron pairs. The pair yield depends on several factors: the electron beam energy, the laser intensity and the duration of the interaction. Prevous studies focused mostly on the short lasers (~ 30 fs). However, using a longer laser pulse (~ 150 fs) can be an advantage, because it increases the effective interaction time and can deliver a higher number of pairs. A powerful tool that supports theoretical studies of laser-matter interactions and helps design of experiments are particle-in-cell (PIC) codes. PIC code OSIRIS has an additional Quantum electrodynamics (QED) module that includes discrete photon emission (non-linear Compton scattering) and Breit-Wheeler electron-positron pair production, as well as macroparticle merging that allows to control the total number of particles in the simulation. In this work, OSIRIS is deployed to model the interaction of short and long lasers of extreme intensities (I>10^22) with electron beams obtained from a laser wakefield accelerator. Measurable experimental signatures are discussed, the number of electron-positron pairs and the overall quality of the newly produced beam.