Enhanced photon emission from a double-layer\xa0target at moderate laser intensities

Martin Jirka,Yan-Jun Gu,Ondrej Klimo,Stefan Weber

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-65778-4

Abstract

In this paper we study photon emission in the interaction of the laser beam with an under-dense target and the attached reflecting plasma mirror. Photons are emitted due to the inverse Compton scattering when accelerated electrons interact with a reflected part of the laser pulse. The enhancement of photon generation in this configuration lies in using the laser pulse with a steep rising edge. Such a laser pulse can be obtained by the preceding interaction of the incoming laser pulse with a thin solid-density foil. Using numerical simulations we study how such a laser pulse affects photon emission. As a result of employing a laser pulse with a steep rising edge, accelerated electrons can interact directly with the most intense part of the laser pulse that enhances photon emission. This approach increases the number of created photons and improves photon beam divergence.

Highlights

In this paper we study photon emission in the interaction of the laser beam with an under-dense target and the attached reflecting plasma mirror
As the laser pulse impinges on the over-dense plasma mirror, it is reflected and previously accelerated electrons can interact with a counter-propagating laser field that leads to efficient photon emission[5,18]
We considered the interaction of the laser pulse with 24 μm-thick under-dense target containing electrons and protons of a density 0.1nc, where nc = ω02meε0/e2 is the critical electron density and ε0 is the vacuum permittivity

Summary

Introduction

In this paper we study photon emission in the interaction of the laser beam with an under-dense target and the attached reflecting plasma mirror. As the laser pulse impinges on the over-dense plasma mirror, it is reflected and previously accelerated electrons can interact with a counter-propagating laser field that leads to efficient photon emission[5,18]. This double-layer interaction setup can be further optimized by tuning the target properties (density, thickness) with respect to the laser intensity and focal spot radius to create the highest number of high-energy photons[19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27]

Methods

Results

Conclusion