Creation of Electron-Positron Pairs in Photon-Photon Collisions Driven by 10-PW Laser Pulses

Phys Rev Lett. 2019 Jan 11;122(1):014802. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.014802.

Abstract

A novel approach is proposed to demonstrate the two-photon Breit-Wheeler process by using collimated and wide-bandwidth γ-ray pulses driven by 10-PW lasers. Theoretical calculations suggest that more than 3.2×10^{8} electron-positron pairs with a divergence angle of 7° can be created per shot, and the signal-to-noise ratio is higher than 10^{3}. The positron signal, which is roughly 100 times higher than the detection limit, can be measured by using the existing spectrometers. This approach, which could demonstrate the e^{-}e^{+} pair creation process from two photons, would provide important tests for two-photon physics and other fundamental physical theories.