Rosmej, Olga and Antonelli, Luca orcid.org/0000-0003-0694-948X (2021) Bright betatron radiation from direct-laser-accelerated electrons at moderate relativistic laser intensity. Matter and Radiation at Extremes. ISSN 2468-080X
Abstract
Direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in a plasma of near-critical electron density (NCD) and the associated synchrotron-like radiation are discussed for moderate relativistic laser intensity (normalized laser amplitude a0 ≤ 4.3) and ps length pulse. This regime is typical of kJ PW-class laser facilities designed for high-energy-density (HED) research. In experiments at the PHELIX facility, it has been demonstrated that interaction of a 1019 W/cm2 sub-ps laser pulse with a sub-mm length NCD plasma results in the generation of high-current well-directed super-ponderomotive electrons with an effective temperature ten times higher than the ponderomotive potential [Rosmej et al., Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 62, 115024 (2020)]. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations provide good agreement with the measured electron energy distribution and are used in the current work to study synchrotron radiation from the DLA-accelerated electrons. The resulting x-ray spectrum with a critical energy of 5 keV reveals an ultrahigh photon number of 7 × 1011 in the 1–30 keV photon energy range at the focused laser energy of 20 J. Numerical simulations of betatron x-ray phase contrast imaging based on the DLA process for the parameters of a PHELIX laser are presented. The results are of interest for applications in HED experiments, which require a ps x-ray pulse and a high photon flux.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Author(s) 2021 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Physics (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 23 Aug 2021 10:20 |
Last Modified: | 11 Dec 2024 00:17 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0042315 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1063/5.0042315 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:177344 |
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