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Laser-accelerated electrons are promising in producing gamma-photon beams of high peak flux for the study of nuclear photonics, obtaining copious positrons and exploring photon--photon interaction in vacuum. We report on the experimental generation of brilliant gamma-ray beams with not only high photon yield but also low divergence, based on picosecond laser-accelerated electrons. The 120 J 1 ps laser pulse drives self-modulated wakefield acceleration in a high-density gas jet and generates tens-of-MeV electrons with 26 nC and divergence as small as 1.51°. These collimated electrons produce gamma-ray photons through bremsstrahlung radiation when transversing a high-Z solid target. We design a high-energy-resolution Compton-scattering spectrometer and find that a total photon number of 2.2x109 is captured within an acceptance angle of 1.1° for photon energies up to 16 MeV. Comparison between the experimental results and Monte Carlo simulations illustrates that the photon beam inherits the small divergence from electrons, corresponding to a total photon number of 2.2x1011 and a divergence of 7.73°. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a scheme to generate high-energy gamma-ray photons with an orbital angular momentum (OAM) from laser-plasma interactions by irradiating a circularly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian laser on a thin plasma target. The spin angular momentum and OAM are first transferred to electrons from the driving laser, and then the OAM is transferred to the gamma-ray photons from the electrons through quantum radiation. This scheme has been demonstrated by using three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics particle-in-cell simulations. The topological charge, chirality, and carrier-envelope phase of the short ultra-intense vortex laser can be revealed according to the energy distribution of gamma-ray emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a quasi-stationary fluid theory to precisely describe the hole-boring process. The corresponding distributions of the electrostatic field and the particle density are theoretically obtained, which give more details than the previous stationary theory. The theoretical result is confirmed by one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Such quasi-stationary fluid theory may help in understanding the basic mechanisms of ion acceleration in the radiation pressure acceleration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO2 laser-driven electron acceleration in low-density plasma is demonstrated using particle-in-cell simulation. An intense CO2 laser pulse of long wavelength excites a wake bubble that has a large elongated volume for accelerating a large number of electrons before reaching the charge saturation limit. A transversely injected laser pulse is used to induce and control the electron injection. It is found that an electron bunch with total charge up to 10 nC and absolute energy spread less than 16MeV can be obtained. As a result, the charge per energy interval of the bunch reaches up to 0.6 nC/MeV. Intense CO2-laser based electron acceleration can provide a new direction for generating highly charged electron bunches with low energy spread, which is of much current interest, especially for table-top X-ray generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light pressure acceleration of ions in the interaction of the frequency-tripled (3w) laser pulse and foil target is studied, and a promising method to increase accelerated ion energy is shown. Results show that at a constant laser energy, much higher ion energy peak value is obtained for 3rn laser compared with that using the fundamental frequency laser. The effect of energy loss during frequency conversion on ion acceleration is considered, which may slightly decrease the acceleration effect [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, human's understanding of the fundamental physics is somehow limited by the energy that our high energy accelerators can afford. Up to 4 TeV protons are realized in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Leptons, such as electrons and positrons, however gained energies of about 100 GeV or less. Multi-TeV lepton accelerators are still lacking due to the relatively low acceleration gradient of conventional methods, which may induce unbearable cost. On the other hand, plasmas have shown extraordinary potential in accelerating electrons and ions, providing orders of magnitude higher acceleration fields of 10-100 GV/m. In such context, we propose a plasma-based high-energy lepton accelerator, in which a weakly focusing plasma structure is formed near the beam axis. The structure preserves the emittance of the accelerated beam and produces low radiation losses. Moreover, the structure allows for a considerable decrease of the witness energy spread at the driver depletion stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanotubes have shown great potential as effective adsorbents for hydrophobic organic contaminants in water treatment. The present study investigated the influence of aqueous solution chemistry on the adsorption of tetracycline to carbon nanotubes. Specifically, the effects of ionic strength (NaCl and CaCl) and presence of Cu ion (7.5 mg/L) or dissolved soil or coal humic acids (50 mg/L) on adsorption of tetracycline to single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT), and nonporous pure graphite as a model of the graphite surface were systematically estimated. The presence of humic acids suppressed tetracycline adsorption on graphite and MWNT prominently, with stronger effects observed on graphite, but only slightly affected tetracycline adsorption on SWNT. The relatively large humic acid components could not readily access the small interstitial spaces of SWNT and thus were less competitive with tetracycline adsorption. The presence of Cu ion increased tetracycline adsorption to both SWNT and MWNT through the mechanism of cation bridging, with much larger effects observed on MWNT. This was probably because when compared with the Cu ions complexed on the surface of SWNT, those on the surface of MWNT having larger mesoporous interstices were more accessible to the relatively bulky tetracycline molecule. Increasing the ionic strength from 10 mM to 100 mM decreased tetracycline adsorption on both SWNT and MWNT, which was attributed to electronic shielding of the negatively charged surface sites. These results show that aqueous solution chemistry is important to tetracycline adsorption on carbon nanotubes. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2010;29:2713-2719. © 2010 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of laser pulse duration and areal density of target in the interaction of a circularly polarized pulse with an ultrathin overdense foil is investigated. One-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation shows that with an appropriate laser-pulse rising front, the light pressure acceleration regime is effective even though the thin foil is transparent. As the laser intensity evolves, three stages in the acceleration process can be identified: at first the total reflection of the laser pulse, followed by partial reflection, and then near total reflection again due to the Doppler effect. The influences of the rising front of laser pulse and areal density of the ultrathin foil are investigated. It is found that an optimal laser pulse rising front exists for obtaining high (saturation) ion energy with the same laser energy within a short time. An optimal areal density also exists for obtaining the highest energy. For the same laser pulse, a higher areal density or a higher density with same areal density is more appropriate for obtaining a stationary state for making light pressure acceleration mechanism more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improvement of the quality of the monoenergetic electron bunch generated in the laser wakefield is investigated. The electrostatic field is more intense near the back of the bubble than at other locations in the bubble. By optimizing the density gradient of background plasma, the local dephasing problem can theoretically be overcome and the electron bunch can be stably accelerated at the back of the bubble so that the accelerated electrons experience nearly the same electric field. Three-dimensional simulations were performed. Compared with the standard wakefield acceleration schemes, a better-quality electron bunch, with narrower energy spread and higher energy, is obtained with a shorter acceleration distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By means of particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we found that when the focus size of a laser pulse is much larger than the plasma wavelength and when the laser power is hundreds of times larger than the critical power required for relativistic self-focusing, a large complex bubble is formed. The transversal size of the bubble depends on the laser spot size. Owing to the large bubble size, a bunch of electrons with the total charge in the range of a few tens of nano- Coulombs is trapped and accelerated in the bubble. When the plasma density is 2×1019 cm-3, the charge of the energetic electron bunch with energy above 5MeV exceeds 45 nC with a laser spot size of 60μm. Electrons continuously self-injected into such a complex bubble serve as an effective source of highcharge electron bunches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation of high-energy proton bunch in the interaction of a high-power laser pulse with a complex target consisting of a front horizontal slice adjoining a conventional heavy ion and proton double-layer slab is investigated using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The laser pulse propagates along both sides of the slice. A large number of hot electrons are generated and accelerated by the surface ponderomotive force, and transported through the double layer, forming a backside sheath field which is considerably stronger and more localized than that produced by the electrons from a simple double layer. As a result, the protons in the proton layer can be accelerated to energies more than three times, and the energy spread halved, that from the simple double layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In laser-target interaction, the effects of laser intensity on plasma oscillation at the front surface of targets have been investigated by one-dimensional particle in cell simulations. The periodical oscillations of the ion density and electrostatic field at the front surface of the targets are reported for the first time, which is considered as an intrinsic property of the target excited by the laser. The oscillation period depends only on initial plasma density and is irrelevant with laser intensity. Flattop structures with curves in ion phase space are found with a more intense laser pulse due to the larger amplitude variation of the electrostatic field. A simple but valid model is proposed to interpret the curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vortex laser pulse is incident on a plasma with a density gradient along one transverse direction and a homogeneous density along the other one. As the laser pulse propagates in the plasma, the transverse energy distribution becomes asymmetric along the direction with the homogeneous density, which is shown from particle-in-cell simulations. We demonstrate theoretically that the asymmetric energy distribution results from the rate of plasma density change along the transverse energy flow of the vortex beam. Meanwhile, the degree of asymmetry is found to be positively related to the topological charge of the vortex beam as well as the density gradient of the plasma. Our finding provides a new approach for measuring the topological charge of a vortex beam, and also implies an available probe of the inhomogeneity of an optical medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new approach based on an all-optical set-up for generating relativistic polarized electron beams via vortex Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser-driven wakefield acceleration. Using a pre-polarized gas target, we find that the topology of the vortex wakefield resolves the depolarization issue of the injected electrons. In full three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, incorporating the spin dynamics via the Thomas-Bargmann Michel Telegdi equation, the LG laser preserves the electron spin polarization by more than 80% while assuring efficient electron injection. The method releases the limit on beam flux for polarized electron acceleration and promises more than an order of magnitude boost in peak flux, as compared to Gaussian beams. These results suggest a promising table-top method to produce energetic polarized electron beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the effect of a plasma charge separation field on radiation reaction (RR) in laser–plasma interactions. By implementing the plasma field equation developed in one-dimension into the classical Landau–Lifshitz formula, our numerical test-particle modeling revealed distinctive plasma electron dynamics in three regimes: the low density underdense regime, the near-critical density (NCD) regime and the highly overdense one. It is discovered from the electron trajectories and gamma-ray emission that the RR effect is mostly significant at near-critical plasma densities. The underlying mechanism is well interpreted by the theoretical analysis from the perspective of the potential contained in the charge separation field and demonstrated in two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations using the quantum electro-dynamic photon emission approach. Our findings indicate that the NCD plasma is the most efficient medium to leverage RR and generate high-energy and low-divergence gamma-photons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring vacuum birefringence with the station of extreme light at Shanghai Coherent Light Facility is considered. Laser pulses of intensity beyond 1023 W cm−2 are capable of polarizing the vacuum due to the ultra-strong electro-magnetic fields. The subtle difference of the vacuum refractive indexes along electric and magnetic fields leads to a birefringence effect for lights propagating through. The vacuum birefringence effect can now be captured by colliding a hard x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) beam with a high-power laser. The initial XFEL beam of pure linear polarization is predicated to gain a very small ellipticity after passing through the laser stimulated vacuum. Various interaction geometries are considered, showing that the estimated ellipticity lies between 1.8 × 10−10 and 10−9 for a 100 PW laser interacting with a 12.9 keV XFEL beam, approaching the threshold for todays’ polarity detection technique. The detailed experimental set-up is designed, including the polarimeter, the focusing compound refractive lens and the optical path. When taking into account the efficiencies of the x-ray instruments, it is found that about 10 polarization-flipped x-ray photons can be detected for a single shot for our design. Considering the background noise level, accumulating runs are necessary to obtain high confident measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]