Optimizing Electron-Positron Pair Production on Kilojoule-Class High-Intensity Lasers for the Purpose of Pair-Plasma Creation

Journal Article · Mon Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review E

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.79.066409· OSTI ID:959408

Myatt, J; Delettrez, J A; Maximov, A V; Meyerhofer, D D; Short, R W; Stoeckl, C; Storm, M

Expressions for the yield of electron-positron pairs, their energy spectra, and production rates have been obtained in the interaction of multi-kJ pulses of high-intensity laser light interacting with solid targets. The Bethe-Heitler conversion of hard x-ray bremsstrahlung [D. A. Gryaznykh, Y. Z. Kandiev, and V. A. Lykov, JETP Lett. 67, 257 (1998); K. Nakashima and H. Takabe, Phys. Plasmas 9, 1505 (2002)] is shown to dominate over direct production (trident process) [E. P. Liang, S. C. Wilks, and M. Tabak, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 4887 (1998)]. The yields and production rates have been optimized as a function of incident laser intensity by the choice of target material and dimensions, indicating that up to 5 x 10^11 pairs can be produced on the OMEGA EP laser system [L. J. Waxer et al., Opt. Photonics News 16, 30 (2005)]. The corresponding production rates are high enough to make possible the creation of a pair plasma.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FC52-08NA28302
• OSTI ID: 959408
• Report Number(s): DOE/NA/28302; 2008-136; 1879
• Journal Information: Physical Review E, Vol. 79, Issue 6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English