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We examined electron–positron pair production in solid iron, zinc, tungsten, and lead targets irradiated by a laser-accelerated electron beam generated with a 100 TW laser. These targets were assessed at the target thickness of 0.5, 1.25, and 2.0 radiation lengths for each material. Using a 0.75-T-magnetic spectrometer, we measured the electron and positron yields and spectra, producing 3 × 108 positrons per shot with a peak leptonic density of 4 × 1012 cm−3. These experimental results agree very well with Monte Carlo simulations conducted with the simulation code Geant4. Importantly, our findings show that normalizing the target thickness to each material’s radiation length results in consistent electron and positron yields across the materials, effectively reducing discrepancies due to material differences.

Abstract A localized nanoparticle insertion scheme is developed to decouple electron injection from laser evolution in laser wakefield acceleration. Here we report the experimental realization of a controllable electron injection by the nanoparticle insertion method into a plasma medium, where the injection position is localized within the short range of 100 μm. Nanoparticles were generated by the laser ablation process of a copper blade target using a 3-ns 532-nm laser pulse with fluence above 100 J/cm2. The produced electron bunches with a beam charge above 300 pC and divergence of around 12 mrad show the injection probability over 90% after optimizing the ablation laser energy and the temporal delay between the ablation and the main laser pulses. Since this nanoparticle insertion method can avoid the disturbing effects of electron injection process on laser evolution, the stable high-charge injection method can provide a suitable electron injector for multi-GeV electron sources from low-density plasmas.

Ultrafast optical excitation of matter leads to highly excited states that are far from equilibrium. In this study, femtosecond x-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to visualize the ultrafast dynamics in photoexcited warm dense Cu. The rich dynamical features related to d vacancies are observed on femtosecond timescales. Despite the success in explaining x-ray absorption data in the picosecond regime, the new femtosecond data are poorly understood through the traditional two-temperature model based on the fast thermalization concept and the static electronic structure for high-temperature metals. An improved understanding can be achieved by including the recombination dynamics of nonthermal electrons and changes in the screening of the excited d block. The population balance between the 4sp and 3d bands is mainly determined by the recombination rate of nonthermal electrons, and the underpopulated 3d block is initially strongly downshifted and recovered in several hundreds of femtoseconds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]