Laser-Driven Multi-GeV Muon Sources: Production and Applications
Recent advances in laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) provide a route to generate multi-GeV electron beams, enabling transportable, laser-driven muon sources.By directing the electron bunches onto high-Z targets, muons are produced through Bethe-Heitler pair creation and pion decay processes.The resulting pulsed flux can exceed the natural cosmic background while offering tunable energy and directionality.This work reviews the current status of laser-driven muon sources, scaling laws, experimental demonstrations at leading facilities, and detection techniques.Reported LWFA experiments have observed directed, high-energy and lower-energy, isotropic muon emissions.Measured muon lifetimes matched the well-known value, providing evidence of muon generation.We discuss performance projections for nextgeneration high-repetition-rate systems capable of substantially enhanced muon flux.Such compact sources open new opportunities for muon-radiography, nuclear security, high-energy physics research, and exploratory concepts such as muon-catalyzed fusion.Continued development of LWFA electron drivers and detector systems is critical to realizing these applications.
Authors
- Petr Valenta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1067-3762)
- Stavros D. Moustaizis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0412-9712)
- Zohar Henis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6813-1400)
- A. Cimmino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7510-4996)
- A. Erlandson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7165-1121)
- R. Versaci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6516-0764)
- S. V. Bulanov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8305-0289)
- L. Calvin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4281-952X)
- B. Miao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5647-4067)
- Todd Ditmire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2738-0093)
- E. Rockafellow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8935-8628)
- J. E. Shrock (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1147-2145)
- Michal Nevrkla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1881-7882)
- Yuqiu Gu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6979-4556)
- G. Sarri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1800-343X)
- Davide Terzani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0105-5420)
- K. Fleck (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5356-7698)
- Petru Ghenuche (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8695-6641)
- C. Vancea (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1069-9340)
- D. Margarone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1917-9683)
- Weimin Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5474-7511)
- Gabriele Maria Grittani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4394-854X)
- E. Gerstmayr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1164-8593)
- S. Eliezer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2880-3481)
- H. Maguire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6218-4309)
- Jiří Šišma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7704-136X)
- C. Daponta
- Wentao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6339-4858)
- Feng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3986-491X)
- M. Tytgat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3990-2074)
- ALEXANDRA SAFTOIU (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7903-6510)
- I. Ploumistakis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2007-8434)
- B. Reagan
- L. Chen
- J. Williams
- M. Dobre
- T. Foster
- D. Doria
- A. Balaceanu
- F. Bossi
- B. Rus
Institutions
- Queen's University Belfast (GB)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US)
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (IT)
- Horia Hulubei National Institute for R and D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (RO)
- National Institute for Laser Plasma and Radiation Physics (RO)
- Institute of Modern Physics (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (CN)
- Interuniversity Institute for High Energies (BE)
- Soreq Nuclear Research Center (IL)
- Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CA)
- Technical University of Crete (GR)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Colorado State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- High Power Laser Science and Engineering
- Published
- 2026-11-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2026.10210
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00