GeV-level $\gamma$-ray and positron beams produced by collisions of ultra-intense ultra-short laser on high-energy electron beam

Abstract

Based on collisions between the 100 PW laser and 8 GeV superconducting linear accelerator constructing at the Shanghai hard X-ray free electron laser system (SHINE), the building of GeV-level $\gamma$-ray as well as positron beams are proposed according to particle-in-cell simulations. Key processes are considered involving the nonlinear inverse Compton scattering for $\gamma$-ray generation and the multiphoton Breit-Wheeler process for electron-positron pair production. Regardless of laser polarization, the simulations indicate that $\gamma$-ray beams achieve energy up to 8 GeV, brilliance around 10${}^{27}$ photons/(s mm${}^2$ mrad${}^2$), and emittance as low as 0.1 mm mrad, while positron beams reach energy up to 7 GeV, brilliance around 4 $\times$ 10${}^{24}$ positrons/(s mm${}^2$ mrad${}^2$), and emittance as low as 0.1 mm mrad. Various applications could benefit from the possible high-energy $\gamma$-ray and positron beams built at the SHINE facility, including fundamental physics of strong-field quantum electrodynamics theory validation, nuclear physics, radiopharmaceutical preparation, and imaging, etc.