Production and dynamics of positrons in ultrahigh intensity laser-foil interactions

The electron-positron pair production accompanying interaction of a circularly polarized laser pulse with a foil is studied for laser intensities higher than 1024 W cm−2. The laser energy penetrates into the foil due to the effect of the relativistic hole-boring. It is demonstrated that the electron...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of plasmas 2016-09, Vol.23 (9)
Main Authors: Kostyukov, I. Yu, Nerush, E. N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antinodes
Boring
Circular polarization
Computer simulation
Electron-positron plasmas
Foils
Nodes (standing waves)
Pair production
Particle in cell technique
Plasma physics
Positrons
Standing waves
Three dimensional models
Ultrahigh intensity lasers
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Summary:The electron-positron pair production accompanying interaction of a circularly polarized laser pulse with a foil is studied for laser intensities higher than 1024 W cm−2. The laser energy penetrates into the foil due to the effect of the relativistic hole-boring. It is demonstrated that the electron-positron plasma is produced as a result of quantum-electrodynamical cascading in the field of the incident and reflected laser light in front of the foil. The incident and reflected laser light make up the circularly polarized standing wave in the reference frame of the hole-boring front and the pair density peaks near the nodes and anti-nodes of the wave. A model based on the particle dynamics with radiation reaction effect near the magnetic nodes is developed. The model predictions are verified by three dimensional particle-in-cell Monte Carlo simulations.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/1.4962567