High Energy Photon-Photon Colliders

Abstract

Using the laser backscattering method at future TeV linear colliders one can obtain gamma-gamma and electron-gamma colliding beams (photon colliders) with the energy and luminosity comparable to that in e+e- collisions. Now this option is included to conceptual designs of linear colliders. This paper (talk at the conference on nonlinear optics) is a short introduction to this field with an emphasis on required lasers which can be used both for e -> gamma conversion and for preparation of electron beams (photoguns, laser cooling), some interesting nonlinear QED effects in a strong field which apply restrictions on parameters of photon colliders are discussed.