Electron-positron pairs and radioactive nuclei production by irradiation of high-Z target with $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-photon flash generated by an ultra-intense laser in the ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}^{3}$ regime

Open Access

Electron-positron pairs and radioactive nuclei production by irradiation of high-Z target with $γ$ -photon flash generated by an ultra-intense laser in the $λ^{3}$ regime

David Kolenatý, Prokopis Hadjisolomou, Roberto Versaci, Tae Moon Jeong, Petr Valenta, Veronika Olšovcová, and Sergei Vladimirovich Bulanov

Phys. Rev. Research 4, 023124 – Published 16 May 2022

Abstract

This paper studies the interaction of laser-driven $γ$ photons and high-energy charged particles with high-Z targets through Monte Carlo simulations. The interacting particles are taken from particle-in-cell simulations of the interaction of a tightly focused ultra-intense laser pulse with a titanium target. Lead is chosen as the secondary high-Z target because of its high cross-section of the giant dipole resonance and electron-positron pair production. The results reveal an ultra-short, ultra-relativistic collimated positron population and their energy spectra, angular distribution, and temporal profile are found. We investigate the target thickness dependence of the resulting total numbers and total kinetic energies of various particle species emitted from the lead target irradiated with laser-generated $γ$ photons and charged particles separately. We plot the charts of residual high-Z nuclides generated by irradiation of the lead target. Because of the short pulse duration, the $γ$ photon, electron-positron, and neutron sources could find applications in material science, nuclear physics, laboratory astrophysics, and as injectors in laser-based accelerators of charged particles.

Received 17 February 2022
Accepted 8 April 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.023124

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Accelerators & BeamsInterdisciplinary PhysicsPlasma PhysicsParticles & FieldsEnergy Science & TechnologyNuclear Physics

Authors & Affiliations

David Kolenatý ^*, Prokopis Hadjisolomou , Roberto Versaci , Tae Moon Jeong, Petr Valenta ^†, Veronika Olšovcová , and Sergei Vladimirovich Bulanov ^‡

ELI Beamlines Centre, Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Za Radnicí 835, 25241 Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic

^*Also at Department of Physics and NTIS - European Centre of Excellence, University of West Bohemia, Univerzitní 8, 306 14 Plzeň, Czech Republic; kolenaty@kfy.zcu.cz.
^†Also at Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Břehová 7, Prague 11519, Czech Republic.
^‡Also at National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST), Kansai Photon Science Institute, 8-1-7 Umemidai, Kizugawa, Kyoto 619-0215, Japan.

Article Text

Click to Expand

References

Click to Expand

Issue

Vol. 4, Iss. 2 — May - July 2022

Subject Areas

Reuse & Permissions

Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Images

Figure 1
The drawing illustrates the geometrical setup and the scales of pic and MC simulation regions. The laser-matter interaction resulting in the generation of high-energy particles is computed with the pic code using a titanium target. The simulation employs the $λ^{3}$ regime, where a radially polarized near-single-cycle pulse is focused to a spherical-like intensity of $\sim 0.5 λ$ FWHM spatial profile and $\sim 3.4$ -fs pulse duration. An $\sim 80$ -PW power laser under the tight focusing scheme used reached an intensity of $10^{25} {Wcm}^{- 2}$ . The interactions of laser-driven high-energy charged particles and $γ$ photons with high-Z matter and the resulting products were computed with a MC code using a lead target. The deposited energy to the lead target is represented by color mapping.
Reuse & Permissions
Figure 2
(a) The energy fluence per solid angle and (b) energy spectra of pic simulation output particles accelerated in the forward direction and imported to the MC simulation as primary particles. The $γ$ photons, electrons, positrons, and fully ionized titanium ions (energy and particle number are per nucleon) are denoted by violet, blue, red, and green colors, respectively. The distributions of all the particle species exhibit a cylindrical symmetry with respect to the laser propagation direction because of the radial polarization of the laser pulse.
Reuse & Permissions
Figure 3
The total energy and the number of particles moving in the forward direction beyond the target as function of the thickness of the lead target. Irradiation by $γ$ photon primary particles only are plotted in panels (a) and (c), respectively, and irradiation by the remaining primary particles (i.e., electrons, positrons, and ${Ti}^{+}$ ions) are plotted in panels (b) and (d), respectively. Panels (a) and (c) show also energy deposited to the target; panels (c) and (d) show the total number of residual nuclides in the target. The percentage of the initial energy of primary particles and the yield per initial primary particle are displayed on the right-hand side vertical axes. The remaining primary particles not interacting with the irradiated lead target moving in the forward direction beyond the target are denoted with the black dashed lines. All the $γ$ photons, electrons, positrons, and neutrons moving in the forward direction beyond the target are denoted with violet, blue, red, and green solid lines, respectively. Deposited energy and generated nuclides in the target are denoted with orange and vine solid lines, respectively. Note the multiplying factors for the neutrons and generated nuclides.
Reuse & Permissions
Figure 4
The energy and angular distributions of positrons moving in the forward direction for the lead target thickness of (a) 0 mm, (b) 1 mm, (c) 2 mm, and (d) 5mm are denoted by color mapping. The energy fluences of positrons moving in the forward direction per solid angle are overplotted with gray lines. The cylindrical symmetry of the primary particles with respect to the laser propagation direction is transferred to all emitted positrons from the target.
Reuse & Permissions
Figure 5
The flux of positrons per solid angle escaping from a 5-mm-thick target in the forward direction and entering the disk detector with a diameter of 1 mm aligned concentrically and in parallel to the target at a distance of 1 mm. The minimum energy threshold is 10 MeV and the maximum threshold of divergence angle from the target normal is 50 mrad. The data for positrons originating from primary $γ$ photons, electrons, and positrons are denoted with violet, blue, and red colors, respectively; the bands represent errors of estimated values. The inset figure displays the results with a linear scale. The zero point of the time axes is placed at the first detection of positrons. Note the positron data are below the logarithmic range of the vertical axis in the main panel and overlap the horizontal axis in the inset.
Reuse & Permissions
Figure 6
Chart of residual high-Z nuclides generated in the lead target with a thickness of 10 cm irradiated by primary (a) $γ$ photons, (b) electrons and positrons, and (c) titanium ions from the single laser pulse. Stable nuclides are indicated with squares with black edges.
Reuse & Permissions

Physical Review Research

Electron-positron pairs and radioactive nuclei production by irradiation of high-Z target with γ-photon flash generated by an ultra-intense laser in the λ3 regime

David Kolenatý, Prokopis Hadjisolomou, Roberto Versaci, Tae Moon Jeong, Petr Valenta, Veronika Olšovcová, and Sergei Vladimirovich Bulanov

Phys. Rev. Research 4, 023124 – Published 16 May 2022

Abstract

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Authors & Affiliations

Article Text

References

Issue

Subject Areas

Authorization Required

Other Options

Download & Share

Images

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Reuse & Permissions

Log In

Search

Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation

Electron-positron pairs and radioactive nuclei production by irradiation of high-Z target with $γ$ -photon flash generated by an ultra-intense laser in the $λ^{3}$ regime