Part of Focus on Quantum Control

 

GENERAL SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY
Introduction and background. In conventional large-scale accelerators, particles are accelerated by a radio-frequency field with a rate of up to 1 megaelectronvolt per cm. New methods of acceleration intend to exploit the available strong laser fields to produce higher acceleration gradients in compact table-top setups. Laser-driven plasma-wave accelerators achieve 1000 times larger acceleration rates than the conventional ones using cm-long gas jets . Recently, we have proposed the idea of a micro-scale laser-driven accelerator of electrons and positrons for application in particle physics. It employs positronium atoms exposed to strong counter-propagating short laser pulses and achieves a gigaelectronvolt energy acceleration with high luminosity on a micrometer length-scale.

Main results. In this work, we investigate the impact of polarization and tight focusing of counter-propagating strong laser pulses on the operational performance of the laser-driven collider. We show that driving fields of linear polarization have significant advantage with respect to circular polarization since they allow for smaller collisional impact parameters and larger utilizable positronium samples. The focusing of the laser fields has no detrimental impact on the collision parameters.

Wider implications. Our investigation shows the feasibility of the laser-driven micro-collider. Technical details of the collider, such as the formation of dense bunches of Ps atoms or the recycling of the laser beam energy, require further elaboration.

PACS

29.20.-c Accelerators

Subjects

Accelerators, beams and electromagnetism

Nuclear physics

Instrumentation and measurement

Particle physics and field theory

Dates

Issue 10 (October 2009)

Received 22 May 2009

Published 30 October 2009