Generation of x-rays and gamma rays during interaction of powerful laser pulses with plasma layers

 

Victor V. Kulagin^1,2, Vladimir N. Kornienko², Vladimir A. Cherepenin²

¹Sternberg Astronomical Institute of Lomonosov Moscow State University

²Kotel’nikov Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics of RAS

 

The paper is received on November 8, 2015

 

Abstract. We study generation of x-rays and gamma rays through Thomson backscattering of a probe laser pulse off attosecond relativistic electron bunch generated by accelerating laser pulse from a thin plasma layer. With the help of two dimensional numeric simulation, typical parameters of electron bunches are derived. In particular, the energy of the electrons in the bunch can reach hundreds of MeV, and the charge of the bunch range from tens of picocoulomb to several nanocoulomb. It is shown that in this scheme, using modern lasers, it is possible to generate attosecond x-ray and gamma beams with maximum energy of several MeV.

Key words: super-intense laser pulses, relativistic attosecond electron beams, attosecond x-ray beams.