Developing a diagnostic for energetic laser-Compton produced photon beams

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 903; no. C; pp. 56 - 69
• Main Authors: Quiter, B.J., Zhang, Y., Barton, P.J., Geddes, C.G.R., Garcia-Sciveres, M., Janecek, M., Vetter, K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier B.V 21.09.2018; Elsevier
• Subjects: CCD; charge-coupled device; Charge-Coupled Device (CCD); Compton spectrometer; INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; Laser-Thomson scattering; Laser–plasma accelerators; MeV gamma-ray imaging; Particle tracking detectors; Pixelated detectors; Particle tracking detectors; MeV gamma-ray imaging; Charge-Coupled Device (CCD); Laser–plasma accelerators; Compton spectrometer; Pixelated detectors; Laser-Thomson scattering
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2018.06.031

This paper describes the design and simulation of a radiation detector system for diagnostic measurements of photon beams produced by Thomson or Compton Scattering. The photon beam is Compton scattered in a thin passive converter, and the resulting electrons are analyzed using a charge-coupled device-based tracker and classification algorithms. The flux of the scattered electrons is much lower than that of the photon beam and is additionally dispersed. This dispersal enables measurements while avoiding pileup, which is important in order to provide diagnostic information from intense ‘shot’ based pulsed systems, such as those being built to leverage laser wakefield accelerators. Simulations indicate that the designed system is capable of resolving beam parameters from a single shot. The fidelity to which various beam parameters can be resolved is presented as are methods that could result in further improvement to diagnostic resolution.