High density γ-ray emission and dense positron production via multi-laser driven circular target

Abstract

A diamond-like carbon circular target is proposed to improve γ-ray emission and pair production with a laser intensity of 8 × 1022 W cm−2 by using 2D particle-in-cell simulations with quantum electrodynamics. It is found that the circular target can enhance the density of γ-photons significantly more than a plane target, when two colliding circularly polarized lasers irradiate the target. By multi-laser irradiating the circular target, the optical trap of lasers can prevent the high energy electrons accelerated by laser radiation pressure from escaping. Hence, γ-photons with a high density of beyond 5000nc are obtained through nonlinear Compton backscattering. Meanwhile, 2.7 × 1011 positrons with an average energy of 230 MeV are achieved via the multiphoton Breit–Wheeler process. Such an ultrabright γ-ray source and dense positron source can be useful in many applications. The optimal target radius and laser mismatching deviation parameters are also discussed in detail.