MeV-Energy X Rays from Inverse Compton Scattering with Laser-Wakefield Accelerated Electrons

Authors

• Donald Umstadter, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Shouyuan Chen, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Nathan D. Powers, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• I. Ghebregziabher, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
• C. Maharjan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
• Cheng Liu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Grigory V. Golovin, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Sudeep Banerjee, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• J. Zhang, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• N. Cunningham, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• A. Moorti
• S. Clarke
• Sara Pozzi, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

4-2013

Citation

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 155003 (2013). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.155003

Comments

Copyright 2013 American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

We report the generation of MeV x rays using an undulator and accelerator that are both driven by the same 100-terawatt laser system. The laser pulse driving the accelerator and the scattering laser pulse are independently optimized to generate a high energy electron beam (>200  MeV) and maximize the output x-ray brightness. The total x-ray photon number was measured to be ∼1×10⁷, the source size was 5  μm, and the beam divergence angle was ∼10  mrad. The x-ray photon energy, peaked at 1 MeV (reaching up to 4 MeV), exceeds the thresholds of fundamental nuclear processes (e.g., pair production and photodisintegration).