2019/07/31 by Yan-Fei Li, Rashid Shaisultanov, Yue-Yue Chen +4 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.124.014801
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 014801 (2020)
arxiv created 2019/11/27 · arxiv updated 2020/01/15
Generation of circularly-polarized (CP) and linearly-polarized (LP) γ-rays via the single-shot interaction of an ultraintense laser pulse with a spin-polarized counterpropagating ultrarelativistic electron beam has been investigated in nonlinear Compton scattering in the quantum radiation-dominated regime. For the process simulation a Monte Carlo method is developed which employs the electron-spin-resolved probabilities for polarized photon emissions. We show efficient ways for the transfer of the electron polarization to the high-energy photon polarization. In particular, multi-GeV CP (LP) γ-rays with polarization of up to about 95% can be generated by a longitudinally (transversely) spin-polarized electron beam, with a photon flux at a single shot meeting the requirements of recent proposals for the vacuum birefringence measurement in ultrastrong laser fields. Such high-energy, high-brilliance, high-polarization γ-rays are also beneficial for other applications in high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and laboratory astrophysics.