Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Laser-driven Thomson scattering for the generation of ultra-bright multi-MeV gamma-ray beams
AU - Sarri, Gianluca
AU - Corvan, Darragh J.
AU - Cole, Jason M.
AU - Schumaker, William
AU - Di Piazza, Antonino
AU - Ahmed, Hamad
AU - Yeung, Mark
AU - Zhao, Zu
AU - Harvey, Christopher
AU - Keitel, Christoph H.
AU - Krushelnick, Karl
AU - Mangles, Stuart P. D.
AU - Najmudin, Zulfikar
AU - Thomas, Alexander George Roy
AU - Zepf, Matthew
PY - 2015/6/3
Y1 - 2015/6/3
N2 - Compact γ-ray sources are of key importance not only for fundamental research but also for paramount practical applications such as cancer radiotherapy, active interrogation of materials, and high-energy radiography. Particular characteristics are required for meaningful implementation: multi-MeV energies per photon, a high degree of collimation, and a high peak brilliance. Laser-driven sources are theoretically expected to deliver such capabilities but experiments to date have reported either sub-MeV photon energies, or relatively low brilliance. By entering the non-linear regime of Thomson scattering, we report here on the first experimental realisation of a compact laser-driven γ-ray source that simultaneously ensures ultra-high brilliance (≈1019 photons s-1 mm-2 mrad-2 0.1% BW), low divergence (≈ mrad), and high photon energy (up to 18 MeV). The reported brilliance exceeds by two orders of magnitudes those of alternative mechanisms and it is the highest ever achieved in the multi-MeV regime in a laboratory experiment.
AB - Compact γ-ray sources are of key importance not only for fundamental research but also for paramount practical applications such as cancer radiotherapy, active interrogation of materials, and high-energy radiography. Particular characteristics are required for meaningful implementation: multi-MeV energies per photon, a high degree of collimation, and a high peak brilliance. Laser-driven sources are theoretically expected to deliver such capabilities but experiments to date have reported either sub-MeV photon energies, or relatively low brilliance. By entering the non-linear regime of Thomson scattering, we report here on the first experimental realisation of a compact laser-driven γ-ray source that simultaneously ensures ultra-high brilliance (≈1019 photons s-1 mm-2 mrad-2 0.1% BW), low divergence (≈ mrad), and high photon energy (up to 18 MeV). The reported brilliance exceeds by two orders of magnitudes those of alternative mechanisms and it is the highest ever achieved in the multi-MeV regime in a laboratory experiment.
U2 - 10.1117/12.2182569
DO - 10.1117/12.2182569
M3 - Journal article
VL - 9514
JO - Proceedings of SPIE
JF - Proceedings of SPIE
SN - 0277-786X
ER -