Simulation studies on the polarized positron generation from circularly polarized gamma-rays

Polarized positrons can be generated through the electron-positron pair creation from circularly polarized gamma-rays hitting a conversion target. Laser-Compton scattering is an efficient method to generate circularly polarized gamma-rays. Simulation studies on these two processes have been done with the Monte Carlo codes, CAIN and GEANT4. Using CAIN to simulate the Laser-Compton scattering process, the energy spectrum of the generated polarized photons could be obtained. GEANT4 was used to study the yield, energy spectrum and the mean polarization of the positrons emanating from the conversion target. To increase the yield of the generated positrons, an optimization study on the thickness of conversion target was also performed.