Vortex gamma rays from scattering laser bullets off ultrarelativistic electrons

Generation of high-flux vortex gamma-ray pulses is investigated in the interaction of ultraintense Bessel-Bessel laser bullets colliding head-on with ultrarelativistic electron bunches in the quantum radiation-dominated regime. In the simulations, a semiclassical Monte-Carlo method is used, based on the radiation probabilities in the local constant field approximation, to describe the electron motion and emission of radiation. Characteristics of the driving laser pulse (orbital angular momentum and nondiffracting spatial and temporal structures) are transferred to the emitted gamma rays by nonlinear Compton scattering. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America