Controlling $γ$-photon production with additively manufactured microstructured targets

Abstract

Nonlinear inverse Compton scattering (NICS) in high-density targets offers a promising route for generating high flux, broadband sources of MeV $γ$-photons which are important for applications like radiography, photonuclear physics, and pair production. Microstructured targets enable control over the NICS process to help shape the photon energy, angular distribution, and total yield. This work presents particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations exploring target microstructures compatible with two-photon polymerization (TPP) additive manufacturing, which is a promising technique that allows high-volume and reproducible printing of sub-wavelength features as small as 200 nm. We investigate how microstructures influence NICS radiation and merge simulation analysis with simple analytical models that guide target design. These results establish pathways to optimize targets for low-divergence, high-energy photon beams with 2.0$\cdot$10$^{8}$ photons/J exceeding 100 MeV and targets for high yields delivering upwards of 2.0$\cdot$10$^{11}$ photons/J above 1 MeV in the multi-PW regime.