Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Spin polarization of electrons by ultraintense ...

Associated organisational unit

Electronic data

  • PhysRevA.96.043407

    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

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Spin polarization of electrons by ultraintense lasers

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
Close
Article number043407
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>11/10/2017
<mark>Journal</mark>Physical review a
Issue number4
Volume96
Number of pages5
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

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%.

Bibliographic note

© 2017 American Physical Society