Projects per year
Abstract
Recent developments in laser-wakefield accelerators have led to compact ultrashort X/γ-ray sources that can deliver peak brilliance comparable with conventional synchrotron sources. Such sources normally have low efficiencies and are limited to 107-8 photons/shot in the keV to MeV range. We present a novel scheme to efficiently produce collimated ultrabright γ-ray beams with photon energies tunable up to GeV by focusing a multi-petawatt laser pulse into a two-stage wakefield accelerator. This high-intensity laser enables efficient generation of a multi-GeV electron beam with a high density and tens-nC charge in the first stage. Subsequently, both the laser and electron beams enter into a higher-density plasma region in the second stage. Numerical simulations demonstrate that more than 1012 γ-ray photons/shot are produced with energy conversion efficiency above 10% for photons above 1 MeV, and the peak brilliance is above 1026 photons s-1 mm-2 mrad-2 per 0.1% bandwidth at 1 MeV. This offers new opportunities for both fundamental and applied research.
Original language | English |
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Article number | eaaz7240 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Science Advances |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 22 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 29 May 2020 |
Keywords
- high energy radiation
- industrial radiography
- medical imaging
- GeV photon colliders
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Projects
- 3 Finished
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Exploring Laser Interaction with Matters in the Quantum Electrodynamics Regime (ELIQED) MSCA-IF-2016
European Commission - Horizon 2020
1/09/17 → 31/08/19
Project: Research Fellowship
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Lab in a bubble
Jaroszynski, D., Boyd, M., Brunetti, E., Ersfeld, B., Hidding, B., McKenna, P., Noble, A., Sheng, Z., Vieux, G., Welsh, G. H. & Wiggins, M.
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
1/04/16 → 31/03/21
Project: Research
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EuPRAXIA (H2020 INFRA DEV)
Hidding, B. & Sheng, Z.
European Commission - Horizon 2020
1/11/15 → 31/10/18
Project: Research
Datasets
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Data for: "Extremely brilliant GeV gamma-rays from a two-stage laser-plasma accelerator"
Zhu, X. (Creator) & Sheng, Z. (Creator), University of Strathclyde, 18 May 2020
DOI: 10.15129/2e322ff9-e631-4a08-ba4e-838dd30a5f1d
Dataset