High-Resolution γ-Ray Radiography Produced by a Laser-Plasma Driven Electron Source

Yannick Glinec (1) , Jérôme Faure (1) , L.Le Dain (2) , S. Darbon (2) , T. Hosokai (3) , J.J. Santos (1) , E. Lefebvre (2) , Jean-Philippe Rousseau (1) , F. Burgy (1) , Brigitte Mercier (1) , Victor Malka (1)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 DPTA - Département de Physique Théorique et Appliquée
3 Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory

An electron beam from a laser-plasma accelerator is converted into a γ-ray source using bremsstrahlung radiation in a dense material. The γ-ray beam has a pointlike source size because it is generated by a high quality electron beam with a small source size and a low divergence. Using this γ-ray source, the radiography of complex and dense objects with submillimeter resolution is performed. It is the first evidence of a γ-ray source size of a few hundreds micrometers produced with laser-driven accelerators. This size is consistent with results from Monte Carlo simulations.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

Yannick Glinec, Jérôme Faure, L.Le Dain, S. Darbon, T. Hosokai, et al.. High-Resolution γ-Ray Radiography Produced by a Laser-Plasma Driven Electron Source. Physical Review Letters, 2005, 94 (2), pp.025003. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.025003⟩. ⟨hal-00508751⟩