Acceleration with self-injection for an all-optical radiation source at LNF

We discuss a new compact gamma-ray source aiming at high spectral density, up to two orders of magnitude higher than currently available bremsstrahlung sources, and conceptually similar to Compton sources based on conventional linear accelerators. This new source exploits electron bunches from laser-driven electron acceleration in the so-called self-injection scheme and uses a counter-propagating laser pulse to obtain X and gamma-ray emission via Thomson/Compton scattering. The proposed experimental configuration inherently provides a unique test-bed for studies of fundamental open issues of electrodynamics. In view of this, a preliminary discussion of recent results on self-injection with the FLAME laser is also given. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.