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8Complex Systems of Charged Particles and their Interactions with Electromagnetic Radiation 2019
LASER ELECTRON ACCELERATION FOR GAMMA-RAY AND THZ
RADIATION SOURCES
A.V. Brantov1,2, A.S. Kuratov1,2, Yu. M. Aliev1, M.G. Lobok1,2, and V.Yu. Bychenkov1,2
1Lebedev Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia,
e-mail: brantov@lebedev.ru 2Center of Fundamental and Applied Research, VNIIA, ROSATOM, Moscow, Russia,:
bychenk@lebedev. ru
3D PIC simulation allowed the detection and study of the formation of an electron bunch moving with relativistic velocity along a thin metal wire during its irradiation with a short laser pulse of relativistic intensity [1]. The bunch motion is accompanied by electromagnetic surface-type pulses. Based on the 3D PIC simulations of short laser pulse interaction with low-density plasma targets, an optimization of electron acceleration has been performed to find the best pulse propagation regime which maximize the charge of the high-energy electron bunches [2]. This regime corresponds to laser pulse propagation in a self-trapping mode where the diffraction divergence is balanced by the relativistic nonlinearity so that relativistic self-focusing on the axis does not happen and the laser beam radius stays unchanged from the entrance during pulse propagation over many Rayleigh lengths. Such regime occurs for near critical density when the pulse length considerably exceeds both the plasma wavelength and the pulse width. Electron acceleration occurs in a moving cavity with a high-frequency laser field filling and a longitudinal electrostatic single-cycle field ("light bullet"). High electron yield allows to efficiently producing gamma radiation, electron-positron pairs and neutrons from a catcher-target that was demonstrated from Monte-Carlo simulations performed. This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant No. 17-12-01283).
References
[1] A.S. Kuratov et al. 2018 Bull. Lebedev Phys. Institute 45 346.
[2] M.G. Lobok et al. 2018 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 60 084010.
