New routes to high-energy photon generation in laser-matter interactions

Over the last decade, rigorous efforts in the development of particle-in-cell (PIC) schemes with corrections from quantum electrodynamics (QED) have resulted in many new and exciting predictions of high-energy photon generation. Here, we will present results based on state-of-the-art QED-PIC and analytical calculations on the generation of high-energy photons from laser-plasma and laser-beam systems.

Closely connected to the emission of high-energy photons are electromagnetic cascades of electron-positron pairs. In the cascade process, radiation reaction and rapid electron-positron plasma production seemingly restrict the efficient production of photons to sub-GeV energies. Here, we show how the interplay between the pair cascade and radiation reaction effects results in the possibility to emit high-energy photons. The possibility to use tailored laser fields as well as particular particle sources promises not only the generation of high-energy photons, but also of controlled pair production at very high densities. Such matter—anti-matter/radiation systems could be of importance for laboratory astrophysics.