Pair production in an electron collision with a radially polarized laser pulse

Abstract

Using 3D numerical simulations, we show that in the collision of an electron with a counter-propagating laser beam, the radial polarization of the laser pulse leads to more efficient electron–positron pair production via multiphoton Breit–Wheeler process compared to the linearly polarized one having the same energy, duration, and amplitude. The reason is that in the case of the radially (or azimuthally) polarized laser pulse, the area of a strong field region is greater than that in the case of a linear one. As a consequence, more electrons experience a strong field region with sufficient energy, that, in turn, results in a higher number of created electron–positron pairs.