AUTHOR=Heppe Christian , Kumar Naveen 

TITLE=High brilliance γ-ray generation from the laser interaction in a carbon plasma channel

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2022.987830

DOI=10.3389/fphy.2022.987830

ISSN=2296-424X

ABSTRACT=<p>The generation of collimated, high brilliance <italic>γ</italic>-ray beams from a structured plasma channel target is studied by means of 2D PIC simulations. Simulation results reveal an optimum laser pulse duration of 20 fs for generating photon beams of brilliances up to 10<sup>20</sup> s<sup>−1</sup>mm<sup>−1</sup>mrad<sup>−2</sup> (0.1 %BW)<sup>−1</sup> with photon energies well above 200 MeV in the interaction of an ultra-intense laser (incident laser power <italic>P</italic><sub><italic>L</italic></sub> ≥ 5 PW) with a high-Z carbon structured plasma target. These results are aimed at employing the upcoming laser facilities with multi-petawatt (PW) laser powers to study the laser-driven nonlinear quantum electrodynamics processes in an all-optical laboratory setup.</p>