Gamma-ray emission from wakefield-accelerated electrons wiggling in a laser field

Jie Feng,Yifei Li,Dazhang Li,Wenchao Yan,Jinguang Wang,Liming Chen,Weimin Wang,Fang Li

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-38777-3

Abstract

Ultra-fast synchrotron radiation emission can arise from the transverse betatron motion of an electron in a laser plasma wakefield, and the radiation spectral peak is limited to tens of keV. Here, we present a new method for achieving high-energy radiation via accelerated electrons wiggling in an additional laser field whose intensity is one order of magnitude higher than that for the self-generated transverse field of the bubble, resulting in an equivalent wiggler strength parameter K increase of approximately twenty times. By calculating synchrotron radiation, we acquired a peak brightness for the case of the laser wiggler field of 1.2 × 1023 ph/s/mrad2/mm2/0.1%BW at 1 MeV. Such a high brilliance and ultra-fast gamma-ray source could be applied to time-resolved probing of dense materials and the production of medical radioisotopes.

Highlights

Ultra-fast X-/γ-ray sources have been widely used to resolve the structure and dynamics of dense matter and biological proteins[1,2]
In this letter, we propose a new method in which two ultra-short laser pulses drive electron acceleration and betatron radiation independently, which can sustain electrons located in the acceleration wakefield to ensure a high energy gain and induces strong betatron oscillations in the wiggling laser field
To acquire a high-energy electron beam with a larger oscillation amplitude, we proposed a modification based on case (a) corresponding to Fig. 1(a) in which a second intense laser pulse follows the driving laser pulse at different positions of the bubble, as shown in www.nature.com/scientificreports

Summary

Introduction

Ultra-fast X-/γ-ray sources have been widely used to resolve the structure and dynamics of dense matter and biological proteins[1,2] These sources with high brightness are mainly achieved at large facilities, such as X-ray free electron laser (X-FEL)[3] and synchrotron radiation light sources[4], which are accessible to a limited number of users. Cipiccia et al.[26] demonstrated betatron radiation with Ecrit = 450 keV and emission with a peak brilliance of 1023 ph/s/mrad2/mm2/0.1%BW from self-injected electrons resonating strongly with the laser-driven pulse with a higher energy of 5 J and a longer pulse duration of 55 fs. A longer laser pulse and a constant laser energy mean a smaller laser intensity, which results in a smaller electron energy gain ∆E

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion