2025/06/02 by Brandon K. Russell, C. P. Ridgers, Russell, Brandon K. +19
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser Design and Applications #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Optics (physics.optics) #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.01727
openalex publication_date 2025/06/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Plasma-based particle accelerators promise to extend the revolutionary work performed with conventional particle accelerators to studies with smaller footprints, lower costs, and higher energies. Here, we propose a new approach to access an unexplored regime of strong-field quantum electrodynamics by plasma wakefield acceleration of both charged particles and photons. Instead of using increasingly powerful accelerators and lasers, we show that photon acceleration of optical pulses into the extreme ultraviolet allows multi-GeV electrons to reach quantum nonlinearity parameters χe ≫ 10 with a high probability due to the reduced radiative losses. A significant fraction of photons produced in high-χe regions will propagate to detectors without generating pairs because of the reduction in the quantum rates. The photon spectra obtained may be used to characterize the predicted breakdown of strong-field quantum electrodynamics theory as it enters the fully non-perturbative regime.