Laser-driven Thomson scattering for the generation of ultra-bright multi-MeV gamma-ray beams

Sarri, Gianluca and Corvan, Darragh J. and Cole, Jason M. and Schumaker, William and Di Piazza, Antonino and Ahmed, Hamad and Yeung, Mark and Zhao, Zu and Harvey, Christopher and Keitel, Christoph H. and Krushelnick, Karl and Mangles, Stuart P. D. and Najmudin, Zulfikar and Thomas, Alexander George Roy and Zepf, Matthew (2015) Laser-driven Thomson scattering for the generation of ultra-bright multi-MeV gamma-ray beams. Proceedings of SPIE, 9514. ISSN 0277-786X

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Abstract

Compact γ-ray sources are of key importance not only for fundamental research but also for paramount practical applications such as cancer radiotherapy, active interrogation of materials, and high-energy radiography. Particular characteristics are required for meaningful implementation: multi-MeV energies per photon, a high degree of collimation, and a high peak brilliance. Laser-driven sources are theoretically expected to deliver such capabilities but experiments to date have reported either sub-MeV photon energies, or relatively low brilliance. By entering the non-linear regime of Thomson scattering, we report here on the first experimental realisation of a compact laser-driven γ-ray source that simultaneously ensures ultra-high brilliance (≈1019 photons s-1 mm-2 mrad-2 0.1% BW), low divergence (≈ mrad), and high photon energy (up to 18 MeV). The reported brilliance exceeds by two orders of magnitudes those of alternative mechanisms and it is the highest ever achieved in the multi-MeV regime in a laboratory experiment.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Proceedings of SPIE
ID Code:
85837
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
05 Apr 2017 10:34
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Sep 2023 01:30