Generation of tens-of-MeV photons by compton backscatter from laser-plasma-accelerated GeV electrons

Previous work has demonstrated the use of a plasma mirror (PM), after a laser-plasma accelerator (LPA), for generating Compton γ-rays by retro-reflecting the spent laser pulse into the just-accelerated electrons. Here, we investigate the use of a PM to stimulate Compton backscatter (CBS) by retro-re...

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Bibliographic Details
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Backscattering
Divergence
Electrons
Lasers
Photons
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Summary:Previous work has demonstrated the use of a plasma mirror (PM), after a laser-plasma accelerator (LPA), for generating Compton γ-rays by retro-reflecting the spent laser pulse into the just-accelerated electrons. Here, we investigate the use of a PM to stimulate Compton backscatter (CBS) by retro-reflecting a spent pulse from the Texas Petawatt (TPW) laser after it has driven a cm-scale, GeV LPA. A comparative analysis between the electron and CBS pointing and divergence reveals strong agreement, from shot-to-shot, suggesting a reliable, non-invasive extension for GeV-beam metrology. Our observations confirm the self-aligning PM method is scalable to GeV LPAs, while also suggesting a technique with unique advantages and a robustness that can potentially be exploited for investigations of nonlinear Compton backscatter from ultralow divergence, GeV electrons using the Texas Petawatt Laser.
ISSN:0094-243X
1551-7616
DOI:10.1063/1.4975910