Monte Carlo simulation code for polarized inverse Compton scattering sources

Abstract

Polarized x rays or gamma rays generated from inverse Compton scattering (ICS) sources are high-brightness, quasimonochromatic, and polarization-tunable and are widely applied in medical imaging, material science, and nuclear physics research. In this paper, to simulate ICS between electron beams and polarized laser beams, a Monte Carlo simulation code has been developed and implemented based on the geant4 toolkit. This code considers the polarization as well as the bandwidth of incident laser beams. The code is benchmarked by comparing its simulation results with those from the well-known Monte Carlo tool called cain and experimental results. The comparisons show that this code accurately reproduces the scattered photons, demonstrating its potential for various ICS-based applications.