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  • Liang, E; Clarke, T; Henderson, A; Fu, W; Lo, W; Taylor, D; Chaguine, P; Zhou, S; Hua, Y; Cen, X; Wang, X; Kao, J; Hasson, H; Dyer, G; Serratto, K; Riley, N; Donovan, M; Ditmire, T

    Scientific reports, 2015-Sep-14, 20150914, Letnik: 5
    Journal Article

    We report results of new pair creation experiments using ~100 Joule pulses of the Texas Petawatt Laser to irradiate solid gold and platinum targets, with intensities up to ~1.9 × 10(21) W.cm(-2) and pulse durations as short as ~130 fs. Positron to electron (e+/e-) ratios >15% were observed for many thick disk and rod targets, with the highest e+/e- ratio reaching ~50% for a Pt rod. The inferred pair yield was ~ few ×10(10) with emerging pair density reaching ~10(15)/cm(3) so that the pair skin depth becomes < pair jet transverse size. These results represent major milestones towards the goal of creating a significant quantity of dense pair-dominated plasmas with e+/e- approaching 100% and pair skin depth ≪ pair plasma size, which will have wide-ranging applications to astrophysics and fundamental physics.