Laser-driven hole boring and gamma-ray emission in high-density plasmas

Abstract

Ion acceleration in laser-produced dense plasmas is a key topic of many recent investigations thanks to its potential applications. Indeed, at forthcoming laser intensities ($I \gtrsim 10^{23} \text{W}\,\text{cm}^{-2}$) interaction of laser pulses with plasmas can be accompanied by copious gamma-ray emission. Here we demonstrate the mutual influence of gamma-ray emission and ion acceleration during relativistic hole boring in high-density plasmas with ultra-intense laser pulses. If gamma-ray emission is abundant, laser pulse reflection and hole-boring velocity are lower and gamma-ray radiation pattern is narrower than in the case of low emission. Conservation of energy and momentum allows one to elucidate the effects of gamma-ray emission which are more pronounced at higher hole-boring velocities.