Abstract
A new generation of high power laser facilities will provide laser pulses with extremely high powers of 10 petawatt (PW) and even 100 PW, capable of reaching intensities of $10^{23}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$ in the laser focus. These ultra-high intensities are nevertheless lower than the Schwinger intensity $I_{S}=2.3\times 10^{29}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$ at which the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) predicts that a large part of the energy of the laser photons will be transformed to hard Gamma-ray photons and even to matter, via electron–positron pair production. To enable the investigation of this physics at the intensities achievable with the next generation of high power laser facilities, an approach involving the interaction of two colliding PW laser pulses is being adopted. Theoretical simulations predict strong QED effects with colliding laser pulses of ${\geqslant}10~\text{PW}$ focused to intensities ${\geqslant}10^{22}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$.
Highlights
Scientists and engineers use Einstein’s famous energy–mass equivalence, E = mc2, to calculate the transformation of part of the mass of nuclei into energy by nuclear fission or fusion reactions
While even the planned lasers ultra-high intensities will still be much lower than IS, this could be overcome by using the geometry of colliding two PW laser pulses: (a) the first PW laser pulse accelerates an electron bunch to relativistic energies of several GeV/electron, using either gas or solid targets; and (b) the second PW laser pulse is focused to the maximum intensity on the relativistic electron bunch in order to generate the Quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects
At the Schwinger laser intensity of IS = 2.3 × 1029 W/cm2 the QED theory predicts that a large part of the energy of the laser photons will be transformed to hard Gamma photons and even to matter: electron–positron pairs
Summary
E1 interaction chamber is dedicated to nuclear physics experiments with solid targets: two F/3 mirrors providing tight focus with ultra-intense EM fields This configuration will be used for colliding laser pulses QED experiments with solid targets. The high-density, soliddensity, relativistic electrons accelerated by the ‘first 10 PW pulse’ will travel through the focus of the ‘second 10 PW pulse’ where they will be immersed in this ultra-intense, I > 1022 W/cm, electromagnetic field and will generate QED effects resulting in Gamma photons and electron–positron pair production.
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