Hot Electron and Pair Production from the Texas Petawatt Laser Irradiating Thick Gold Targets

Abstract

We present data for relativistic hot electron production by the Texas Petawatt Laser irradiating solid Au targets with thickness between 1 and 4 mm. The experiment was performed at the short focus target chamber TC1 in July 2011, with laser energies around 50 J. We measured hot electron spectra out to 50 MeV which show a narrow peak around 10 - 20 MeV plus high energy exponential tail. The hot electron spectral shape differs from those reported for other PW lasers. We did not observe direct evidence of positron production above background.