全光汤姆孙散射

随着激光和加速器技术的发展,激光场强度和粒子能量也有所提升,在高场强和高电子能量的条件下,电子与光子的汤姆孙散射过程将达到高度非线性状态,在这种状态下会发生多光子效应,即单个电子同时与多个光子相互作用并辐射一个高能光子,此过程通常称为多光子汤姆孙散射.当场强和粒子能量变得更高时,需要引入量子电动力学理论来解决极端光场物理中的动理学过程.近期,全球多台数拍瓦激光装置逐渐投入使用,激光等离子体相互作用中的此类效应会变得极其显著.而全光汤姆孙散射成为目前研究极端光场物理最佳的实验方案,因此,系统地研究全光多光子汤姆孙散射是本领域未来十年极其重要的方向.本文对近年来全光汤姆孙散射实验从单光子、低阶多光子到高阶多光子的研究进展进行了综述,并对其未来的发展方向进行了展望.另外,伴随着散射过程产生的准直高亮X/伽马射线,有望发展成为具有重要应用价值的紧凑型超亮高能光源.

All-optical Thomson scattering

With the development of laser and accelerator technology,and improvement of the particle energy and field intensity,the scattering process between electron and photon will reach the highly nonlinear regime,where the multi-photon process takes place and the quantum electrodynamics starts to play a role.In the near future,with the commissioning of the multi-PW laser facilities,these effects will be available.In this article,we review the recent progress of electron-photon scattering experiments,from single or few-photon regime to high-order multi-photon regime.In the scattering process,collimated bright X/gamma-energy photons are generated,making it possible to realize a compact top-table bright light source,which is also known as inverse Compton scattering source.Finally,the prospects and challenges of scattering experiments are discussed.