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The spin effect of electrons/positrons ( e ^− / e ^+ ) and polarization effect of γ photons are investigated in the interaction of two counter-propagating linearly polarized laser pulses of peak intensity 8.9 × 10 ^23 W cm ^−2 with a thin foil target. The processes of nonlinear Compton scattering and nonlinear Breit–Wheeler pair production based on the spin- and polarization-resolved probabilities are implemented into the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm by Monte Carlo methods. It is found from PIC simulations that the average degree of linear polarization of emitted γ photons can exceed 50%. This polarization effect leads to a reduced positron yield by about 10%. At some medium positron energies, the reduction can reach 20%. Furthermore, we also observe that the local spin polarization of e ^− / e ^+ leads to a slight decrease of the positron yield about 2% and some anomalous phenomena about the positron spectrum and photon polarization at the high-energy range, due to spin-dependent photon emissions. Our results indicate that spin and polarization effects should be considered in calculating the pair production and laser-plasma interaction with the laser power of 10 PW to 100 PW classes.

We propose a new single-shot method for measuring terahertz pulses using a linearly chirped optical pulse interferogram. Modulated frequency domain phase information can be extracted by the interferogram recorded on imaging spectrographs. The terahertz pulse waveform is obtained from the phase information. We overcome the energy fluctuation problem by using the phase information, making a reference shot unnecessary and the terahertz detection more flexible and convincing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiple filamentation of terawatt femtosecond (fs) laser pulses is experimentally studied in a natural environment. A more than 30-m long plasma filament with a millimeter diameter is formed by the collimated fs laser pulse freely propagating in an open atmosphere. This study provides the first quantitative experimental data about the electron density of a long range light filament in the atmosphere. The electron density of such a filament is quantitatively detected by using an electric method, showing that it is at the 1011-cm−3 level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]