Enhanced electron-positron pair production by two obliquely incident lasers interacting with a solid target

Abstract

Enhanced electron-positron (e−e+) pair production using two obliquely incident lasers interacting with a solid target is investigated through multi-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Two obliquely incident lasers can strengthen the laser-hole boring effect, which enhances the reflected focusing laser field and the consequent quantum electrodynamics effects. PIC simulations show that by using two 10 PW-scale lasers, a high-yield (3 × 1010) overdense (∼1022 cm−3) positron beam can be generated and laser to pair energy conversion efficiency can be increased up to one percent. Such positron yield is fifty times higher than that produced from a single laser with the same peak power. The robustness of such a scheme is confirmed by numerically studying parametric influences of the oblique incident angle, temporal asynchrony and phase difference between the two lasers. It is found that the temporal asynchrony and the phase difference have minor effects on the pair production. The proposed scheme may provide great potential for high dense pair plasma generation in experiments with coming approachable high power laser facilities.