Realising single-shot measurements of quantum radiation reaction in high-intensity lasers
Journal article, 2019

Modern laser technology is now sufficiently advanced that collisions between high-intensity laser pulses and laser-wakefield-accelerated (LWFA) electron beams can reach the strong-field regime, so that it is possible to measure the transition between the classical and quantum regimes of light-matter interactions. However, the energy spectrum of LWFA electron beams can fluctuate significantly from shot to shot, making it difficult to clearly discern quantum effects in radiation reaction (RR), for example. Here we show how this can be accomplished in only a single laser shot. A millimetre-scale pre-collision drift allows the electron beam to expand to a size larger than the laser focal spot and develop a correlation between transverse position and angular divergence. In contrast to previous studies, this means that a measurement of the beam's energy-divergence spectrum automatically distinguishes components of the beam that hit or miss the laser focal spot and therefore do and do not experience RR.

inverse Compton scattering

laser-plasma interactions

radiation reaction

QED plasma

Author

C. D. Baird

University of York

C. D. Murphy

University of York

Tom Blackburn

Chalmers, Physics, Theoretical Physics

A. Ilderton

University of Plymouth

S. P. D. Mangles

Imperial College London

Mattias Marklund

Chalmers, Physics, Theoretical Physics

C. P. Ridgers

University of York

New Journal of Physics

1367-2630 (ISSN)

Vol. 21 5 053030

Subject Categories

Accelerator Physics and Instrumentation

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Other Physics Topics

DOI

10.1088/1367-2630/ab1baf

More information

Latest update

9/29/2022