Simulation study of a bright attosecond $\gamma$-ray source generation by irradiating an intense laser on a cone target

Abstract

The interaction between an ultrastrong laser and a cone-like target is an efficient approach to generate high power radiations like attosecond pulses and terahertz waves. The object is to study the $\gamma$-ray generation under this configuration with the help of 2D particle-in-cell simulations. It is deciphered that electrons experience three stages including injection, acceleration and scattering to emit high energy photons via nonlinear compton scattering (NCS). These spatial-separated attosecond $\gamma$-ray pulses own high peak brilliance ($>10^{22}$ photons/($\rm s\cdot\rm mm^2\cdot\rm mrad^2\cdot0.1\%BW$)) and high energy (6MeV) under the case of normalized laser intensity $a_0=30$ ($\mathrm{I=2\times10^{21}W/cm^2}$). Besides, the cone target turns out to be an order of magnitude more efficient in energy transfer compared with a planar one.