Conversion of relativistic electron beam to hard photon beam via inverse Compton scattering

Summary form only given. When a relativistic electron beam (REB) passes through a laser beam or a radiation field with the mean photon energy above a certain value which depends on the e-beam energy, a highly directed beam of hard photons can be generated. A systematic theoretical analysis has been performed to answer questions central to this scheme of converting an REB into a photon beam, as an alternative to the more familiar conversion process via bremsstrahlung. The general formula for the energy and angular distribution of the up-scattered photons has been derived. This derivation involves rather nontrivial calculations which take the weighted average of the differential inverse Compton cross sections over the energy-momentum distribution of the radiation. Generally speaking, if the mean photon energy ω_T satisfies γω_T≫mc², where γ and mc² are, respectively, the relativistic factor and rest energy of the electron, then the scattered photons are concentrated within a cone angle 1/γ with a mean energy close to γmc²