High average flux positron sources driven by a mJ-class laser
Abstract
We report on the production and characterisation of MeV-scale positron populations driven by a high-repetition-rate, mJ-class laser system. The positrons are generated via a two-step Bethe--Heitler process driven by laser-wakefield-accelerated electron beams propagating through a mm-scale lead converter. At 10 Hz, approximately 1000 positrons in the 0.8--1.7 MeV energy range were measured over 100 accumulated shots. Stable electron acceleration was demonstrated at 10 Hz, 100 Hz, and 1 kHz using approximately 9 mJ of laser energy in the focal spot, indicating the potential for substantially higher average positron fluxes for laser systems operating at kHz repetition rates and energies of 10s of mJ. Such a positron source allows generating sufficiently high average fluxes of MeV-scale positrons while maintaining low positron yields per pulse and narrow temporal distributions, a regime of particular interest for novel applications in material science and fundamental physics. The measured positron yields and spectra are in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations, supporting the modelling of the positron-production process and magnetic transport system.
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BibTeX
@misc{foster2026high,
title = {{High average flux positron sources driven by a mJ-class laser}},
author = {T. Foster and D. Papp and C. McAnespie and H. Maguire and J. Csontos and E. Gerstmayr and G. M. Grittani and C. Kamperidis and D. J. Keeble and C. M. Lazzarini and S. Lorenz and T. Lucza and S. Tóth and G. Sarri},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.23243},
eprint = {2610.23243},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.23243},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - High average flux positron sources driven by a mJ-class laser
AU - T. Foster
AU - D. Papp
AU - C. McAnespie
AU - H. Maguire
AU - J. Csontos
AU - E. Gerstmayr
AU - G. M. Grittani
AU - C. Kamperidis
AU - D. J. Keeble
AU - C. M. Lazzarini
AU - S. Lorenz
AU - T. Lucza
AU - S. Tóth
AU - G. Sarri
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.23243
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.23243
AB - We report on the production and characterisation of MeV-scale positron populations driven by a high-repetition-rate, mJ-class laser system. The positrons are generated via a two-step Bethe--Heitler process driven by laser-wakefield-accelerated electron beams propagating through a mm-scale lead converter. At 10 Hz, approximately 1000 positrons in the 0.8--1.7 MeV energy range were measured over 100 accumulated shots. Stable electron acceleration was demonstrated at 10 Hz, 100 Hz, and 1 kHz using approximately 9 mJ of laser energy in the focal spot, indicating the potential for substantially higher average positron fluxes for laser systems operating at kHz repetition rates and energies of 10s of mJ. Such a positron source allows generating sufficiently high average fluxes of MeV-scale positrons while maintaining low positron yields per pulse and narrow temporal distributions, a regime of particular interest for novel applications in material science and fundamental physics. The measured positron yields and spectra are in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations, supporting the modelling of the positron-production process and magnetic transport system.
ER -