Atomistic Simulations of Ultra-Relativistic Particles Channeling and Radiation in Crystalline Structures

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andrey V. Solovyov
• Subject Area: Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: from 2019 to 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413220201

The project aims at the advanced computational exploration, carried out at the atomistic level of details, of a novel Light Source (LS) of high energy (from ~100 keV up to GeV range, the corresponding wavelength less than 0.1 Angstrom) monochromatic electromagnetic radiation by means of a Crystalline Undulator (CU). The latter stands for an oriented periodically bent crystal (PBC) exposed to the beam of ultrarelativistic (up to hundreds of GeV) electrons or positrons. In the limit of highly energetic light projectiles (tens of GeV and higher), to maintain the stability of CUR against high rate of radiative losses, a more complex crystalline structure, - quasi PBC (qPBC), can be used in which bending amplitude and period are varied with the penetration distance. A research programme within the project combines theory, computational modeling and design of the crystalline structures (both ideal and imperfect), of the ultra-relativistic particles dynamics with account for the interaction with crystal atoms and for the action of the radiation damping force, and of the photon emission processes by charged projectiles. An advanced algorithm for multiscale modeling will be developed which enables efficient simulation of particles propagation through realistic crystalline structures of macroscopic sizes as well as calculation of the spectral-angular distribution of the emitted radiation. The multiscale all-atom MD simulations of the particle propagation and radiation in realistic (imperfect) crystals combined with modern numerical algorithms, advanced computational facilities and computing technologies will bring the predictive power of the results obtained up to the accuracy level comparable or even higher than achievable experimentally. It will turn computational modeling into the instrumental tool that could substitute (or become an alternative to) expensive laboratory experiments, and thus reduce the experimental and technological costs. Theoretical and computational results obtained in the course of this project will be compared with available experimental data and will stimulate further technological developments of the LSs. In a longer term, a CU-based gamma-ray LS has a potential to generate coherent radiation (the FEL type) with wavelengths orders of magnitudes less than 1 Angstrom, i.e. within the wavelength range that cannot be reached in existing LSs based on magnetic undulators. Such LSs will have many applications in the basic sciences including nuclear and solid-state physics and the life sciences.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants