Abstract
The growth rates of seeded QED cascades in counterpropagating lasers are calculated with first-principles two- and three-dimensional QED-PIC (particle-in-cell) simulations. The dependence of the growth rate on the laser polarization and intensity is compared with analytical models that support the findings of the simulations. The models provide insight regarding the qualitative trend of the cascade growth when the intensity of the laser field is varied. A discussion about the cascade's threshold is included, based on the analytical and numerical results. These results show that relativistic pair plasmas and efficient conversion from laser photons to γ rays can be observed with the typical intensities planned to operate on future ultraintense laser facilities such as ELI or Vulcan.
Highlights
The process of electron-positron pair creation from photon decay has been known since the early 30’s but only the striking E-144 SLAC experiment [1, 2] first demonstrated the possibility of producing matter directly via light-by-light scattering
The growth rate of the cascade is the important macroscopic quantity that tells how the number of pairs rises in the interaction region
As a matter of fact, as we will see the growth rate of the cascade depends on the polarization of the lasers which produce different field structures
Summary
The process of electron-positron pair creation from photon decay has been known since the early 30’s but only the striking E-144 SLAC experiment [1, 2] first demonstrated the possibility of producing matter directly via light-by-light scattering. One ought to consider pair creation through the decay of high energy photons in intense fields. This process usually leads to QED cascades, as the pairs created reemit hard photons that decay anew in pairs, eventually resulting in an electron-positron-photon plasma. Bell & Kirk [15] suggested a judicious configuration comprising two circularly polarized counter propagating lasers with some electrons in the interaction region to seed the cascade. They predicted prolific pair production for intensities approaching 1024 W/cm for a μm wavelength laser. Several groups [16,17,18] have pioneered the investigation of such cascades in the counter propagating
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