Rights statement: © 2017 American Physical Society
Final published version, 242 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Article number | 043407 |
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 11/10/2017 |
<mark>Journal</mark> | Physical review a |
Issue number | 4 |
Volume | 96 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Publication Status | Published |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
Electrons in plasmas produced by next-generation ultraintense lasers (I > 5 x 10(22)W/cm(2)) can be spin polarized to a high degree (10%-70%) by the laser pulses on a femtosecond time scale. This is due to electrons undergoing spin-flip transitions as they radiate gamma-ray photons, preferentially spin polarizing in one direction. Spin polarization can modify the radiation reaction force on the electrons, which differs by up to 30% for opposite spin polarizations. Consequently, the polarization of the radiated gamma-ray photons is also modified: the relative power radiated in the sigma and pi components increases and decreases by up to 30%, respectively, potentially reducing the rate of pair production in the plasma by up to 30%.