Scientific Reports (Jan 2024)

Non-linear QED approach for betatron radiation in a laser wakefield accelerator

  • J. F. Ong,
  • A. C. Berceanu,
  • A. Grigoriadis,
  • G. Andrianaki,
  • V. Dimitriou,
  • M. Tatarakis,
  • N. A. Papadogiannis,
  • E. P. Benis

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50030-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Laser plasma-based accelerators provide an excellent source of collimated, bright, and adequately coherent betatron-type x-ray pulses with potential applications in science and industry. So far the laser plasma-based betatron radiation has been described within the concept of classical Liénard–Wiechert potentials incorporated in particle-in-cell simulations, a computing power-demanding approach, especially for the case of multi-petawatt lasers. In this work, we describe the laser plasma-based generation of betatron radiation at the most fundamental level of quantum mechanics. In our approach, photon emission from the relativistic electrons in the plasma bubble is described within a nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED) framework. The reported QED-based betatron radiation results are in excellent agreement with similar results using Liénard–Wiechert potentials, as well as in very good agreement with betatron radiation measurements, obtained with multi-10-TW lasers interacting with He and multielectron N $$_2$$ 2 gas targets. Furthermore, our QED approach results in a dramatic reduction of the computational runtime demands, making it a favorable tool for designing betatron radiation experiments, especially in multi-petawatt laser facilities.