The radiation reaction effects in the ultra-intense and ultra-short laser foil interaction regime

Abstract

The extreme laser intensity, IL>1023 W/cm2, will be made possible by Extreme Light Infrastructure. Such an ultra-intense and ultra-short laser pulse promises to promote laser-matter interaction into the exotic quantum-electro-dynamical regime. Electrons quivering in such a strong laser pulse experience a radiation reaction (RR) friction force by radiating high frequency photons. These extreme intensities will also make possible acceleration of heavy ions in new regimes. In this paper, the heavy ion beam generation based on ultra-intense and ultra-short laser foil interaction is systematically studied. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations which include an energy conserving electrodynamics model for RR force and the corresponding γ-photons emission have been used. The energy partition into electrons, ions, and photons has been investigated in relation to efficient generation of heavy ion beams by linearly and circularly polarized (LP and CP) laser and for different foil thicknesses. It is found that the CP and LP cases each have an optimal foil thickness for efficient ion beam generation; the RR force has a stronger effect upon laser coupling to an opaque foil target for an LP laser than a CP laser; and the emitted photons are proven to be an efficient source of γ-ray emission with the peak frequency as high as 106∼108 times the laser frequency.