A Tuneable Ultra-Compact High-Power, Ultra-Short Pulsed, Bright Gamma-Ray Source Based On Bremsstrahlung Radiation From Laser-Plasma Accelerated Electrons

The laser driven plasma wakefield accelerator is a very compact source of high energy electrons. When the quasi-monoenergetic beam from these accelerators passes through dense material, high energy bremsstrahlung photons are emitted in a collimated beam with high flux. We show how a source based on this emission process can produce more than 10(9) photons per pulse with a mean energy of 10 MeV. We present experimental results that show the feasibility of this method of producing high energy photons and compare the experimental results with GEANT4 Montecarlo simulations, which also give the scaling required to evaluate its suitability as method to produce radioisotopes via photo-nuclear reactions or for imaging applications. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3693537]