Self-seeded single-laser quantum electrodynamics cascades with a curved plasma mirror

X. S. Geng; M. A. Serebryakov; E. N. Nerush; A. S. Samsonov; I. Y. Kostyukov; L. L. Ji

doi:10.1063/5.0296339

Volume 11 Issue 5

Sep. 2026

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Article Navigation > Matter and Radiation at Extremes > 2026 > 11(5): 057202

X. S. Geng, M. A. Serebryakov, E. N. Nerush, A. S. Samsonov, I. Y. Kostyukov, L. L. Ji. Self-seeded single-laser quantum electrodynamics cascades with a curved plasma mirror[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(5): 057202. doi: 10.1063/5.0296339

Citation:

X. S. Geng, M. A. Serebryakov, E. N. Nerush, A. S. Samsonov, I. Y. Kostyukov, L. L. Ji. Self-seeded single-laser quantum electrodynamics cascades with a curved plasma mirror[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(5): 057202. doi: 10.1063/5.0296339

Citation:

X. S. Geng, M. A. Serebryakov, E. N. Nerush, A. S. Samsonov, I. Y. Kostyukov, L. L. Ji. Self-seeded single-laser quantum electrodynamics cascades with a curved plasma mirror[J]. Matter and Radiation at Extremes, 2026, 11(5): 057202. doi: 10.1063/5.0296339

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Self-seeded single-laser quantum electrodynamics cascades with a curved plasma mirror

doi: 10.1063/5.0296339

1.
State Key Laboratory of Ultra-Intense Laser Science and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai 201800, China
2.
Institute for Applied Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences, 603155 Nizhni Novgorod, Russia

More Information

Corresponding author: a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: jill@siom.ac.cn
Received Date: 2025-08-13
Accepted Date: 2026-05-19

Available Online: 2026-09-28

Publish Date: 2026-09-01

Abstract

Abstract

We demonstrate a self-seeded quantum electrodynamics (QED) cascade driven by a single 100 PW laser pulse reflected from a curved plasma mirror. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the reflected field self-injects electrons from the mirror surface and accelerates them toward the geometric focus, where the intensity reaches a₀ ≈ 4000, triggering an avalanche-type cascade with more than seven generations. The generated pairs are accelerated within a propagating wave rather than a standing wave, producing 60 nC of pairs in collimated beams with high contrast to background electrons. The generated pair plasma exhibits collective behavior, absorbing the incident laser power and screening the laser field at high intensities. This single-beam geometry eliminates multipulse alignment requirements and provides a direct path to studying prolific light-to-matter conversion in strong-field QED.

Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflicts to disclose.
X. S. Geng: Data curation (lead); Investigation (equal); Visualization (lead); Writing – original draft (lead). M. A. Serebryakov: Investigation (equal); Writing – review & editing (supporting). E. N. Nerush: Investigation (equal); Writing – review & editing (supporting). A. S. Samsonov: Investigation (equal); Writing – review & editing (supporting). I. Y. Kostyukov: Conceptualization (supporting); Investigation (equal); Writing – review & editing (supporting). L. L. Ji: Conceptualization (lead); Investigation (equal); Supervision (lead); Writing – review & editing (lead).
Author Contributions
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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References(72)

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