UC Irvine

The state-of-the-art X-ray source based on inverse-Compton scattering between a high-brightness, relativistic electron beam produced by an X-band RF accelerator and a high-intensity laser pulse generated by chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) has been carried out by our research team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This system is called "Compact Laser-Compton X-ray Source". The applications include nuclear resonance fluorescence, medical imaging and therapy, and nuclear waste imaging and assay. One of the key factors in this system is how we know the interaction happened in the vacuum chamber, which is the spectrometer of electron beams. The other key factor is the interaction after the spectrometer, which is the outgoing X-ray. In this thesis, the work in the simulation for the result of the interaction between electrons and the laser, the calibration of spectrometer, and laser focus characterization are discussed.