Kettle, B. and Hollatz, D. and Gerstmayr, E. and Samarin, G.M. and Alejo, A. and Astbury, S. and Baird, C. and Bohlen, S. and Campbell, M. and Colgan, C. and Dannheim, D. and Gregory, C. and Harsh, H. and Hatfield, P. and Hinojosa, J. and Katzir, Y. and Morton, J. and Murphy, C.D. and Nurnberg, A. and Osterhoff, J. and Pérez-Callejo, G. and Põder, K. and Rajeev, P.P. and Roedel, C. and Roeder, F. and Salgado, F.C. and Sarri, G. and Seidel, A. and Spannagel, S. and Spindloe, C. and Steinke, S. and Streeter, M.J.V. and Thomas, A.G.R. and Underwood, C. and Watt, R. and Zepf, M. and Rose, S.J. and Mangles, S.P.D. (2021) A laser-plasma platform for photon-photon physics : The two photon Breit-Wheeler process. New Journal of Physics, 23 (11): 115006. ISSN 1367-2630
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
We describe a laser-plasma platform for photon-photon collision experiments to measure fundamental quantum electrodynamic processes. As an example we describe using this platform to attempt to observe the linear Breit-Wheeler process. The platform has been developed using the Gemini laser facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. A laser Wakefield accelerator and a bremsstrahlung convertor are used to generate a collimated beam of photons with energies of hundreds of MeV, that collide with keV x-ray photons generated by a laser heated plasma target. To detect the pairs generated by the photon-photon collisions, a magnetic transport system has been developed which directs the pairs onto scintillation-based and hybrid silicon pixel single particle detectors (SPDs). We present commissioning results from an experimental campaign using this laser-plasma platform for photon-photon physics, demonstrating successful generation of both photon sources, characterisation of the magnetic transport system and calibration of the SPDs, and discuss the feasibility of this platform for the observation of the Breit-Wheeler process. The design of the platform will also serve as the basis for the investigation of strong-field quantum electrodynamic processes such as the nonlinear Breit-Wheeler and the Trident process, or eventually, photon-photon scattering. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft