High power -ray generation from laser-plasmas

Nakamura, Tatsufumi; Koga, J. K.; Esirkepov, T. Z.; Kando, Masaki; Korn, G.*; Bulanov, S. V.

Radiation reaction (RR) effect, which is a back reaction acting on a charged particle which emits radiation due to its acceleration, is important for such as electrons in synchrotron accelerators or high energy charged particles in the universe. For electrons irradiated by intense laser pulse, RR effect has been neglected so far, but as the laser intensity increases beyond roughly W/cm, it is expected to play an important role. In this study we investigated -ray generation via RR effect. When irradiating 10 PW, 30 fs laser pulse onto thin layer of carbon target, -ray which is as short as the laser pulse, and the total energy is 96 J which is 32% of the incident laser pulse is generated. The -ray power of 2.8 PW which is much higher than those generated by any other devices. We discuss the possibility of laser-driven -ray source.