• I. Jovanovic, Y. Yin
  Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
• S. Boucher, R. Tikhoplav
  RadiaBeam, Marina del Rey
• G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California

One approach for detecting special nuclear material (SNM) at a distance is to use highly penetrating gamma-rays (>6 MeV) to produce photofission. We are investigating inverse gamma-ray sources (IGS), based on inverse Compton scattering (ICS) of a laser pulse on a relativistic electron bunch. Nearly monochromatic gamma rays with high brightness, very small source size and divergence can be produced in IGS. For the interaction drive laser recirculation it is necessary to meet the repetition rate requirements. Three implementations of laser recirculation are proposed for the interaction drive laser, which can significantly reduce the requirements on the interaction drive laser average power. It is found that the recently demonstrated recirculation injection by nonlinear gating (RING) technique offers unique advantages for beam recirculation in IGS.

• R. Tikhoplav, A.Y. Murokh
  RadiaBeam, Santa Monica
• I. Jovanovic
  Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

Of particular interest to X-ray FEL light source facilities is Enhanced Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ESASE) technique. Such a technique requires an ultrafast (20-50 fs) high peak power, high repetition rate reliable laser systems working in the mid-IR range of spectrum (2μm or more). The approach of this proposed work is to design a novel Ultrafast Mid-IR Laser System based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA). OPCPA is a technique ideally suited for production of ultrashort laser pulses at the center wavelength of 2 μm. Some of the key features of OPCPA are the wavelength agility, broad spectral bandwidth and negligible thermal load.