All-optical radiation reaction at 10^21 W/cm^2

Abstract

Using full-scale 3D particle-in-cell simulations we show that the radiation reaction dominated regime can be reached in an all-optical configuration through the collision of a ∼1 GeV laser wakefield accelerated electron bunch with a counterpropagating laser pulse. In this configuration the radiation reaction significantly reduces the energy of the particle bunch, thus providing clear experimental signatures for the process with currently available lasers. We also show that the transition between the classical and quantum radiation reaction could be investigated in the same configuration with laser intensities of 10^23 W/cm^2.