Laser-driven radiation sources are attracting increasing attention for several materials science applications. While laser-driven ions, electrons and neutrons have already been considered to carry out the elemental characterization of materials, the possibility to exploit high-energy photons remains unexplored. Indeed, the electrons generated by the interaction of an ultra-intense laser pulse with a near-critical material can be turned into high-energy photons via bremsstrahlung emission when shot into a high-Z converter. These photons could be effectively exploited to perform Photon Activation Analysis (PAA). In the present work, laser-driven PAA is proposed and investigated. We develop a theoretical approach to identify the optimal experimental conditions for laser-driven PAA in a wide range of laser intensities. Lastly, exploiting the Monte Carlo and Particle-In-Cell tools, we successfully simulate PAA experiments performed with both conventional accelerators and laser-driven sources. Under high repetition rate operation (i.e. 1−10 Hz) conditions, the ultra-intense lasers can allow performing PAA with performances comparable with those achieved with conventional accelerators. Moreover, laser-driven PAA could be exploited jointly with complementary laser-driven materials characterization techniques under investigation in existing laser facilities.

激光驱动的辐射源在一些材料科学应用中越来越受到关注。虽然已经考虑使用激光驱动的离子、电子和中子来进行材料的元素表征，但开发高能光子的可能性仍有待探索。事实上，由超强激光脉冲与近临界材料相互作用产生的电子在射入高阻抗转换器时可以通过轫致辐射转化为高能光子。可以有效地利用这些光子来执行光子激活分析 (PAA)。在目前的工作中，提出并研究了激光驱动的 PAA。我们开发了一种理论方法来确定激光驱动的 PAA 在广泛的激光强度范围内的最佳实验条件。最后，利用 Monte Carlo 和 Particle-In-Cell 工具，我们成功地模拟了使用传统加速器和激光驱动源进行的 PAA 实验。在高重复率操作（即 1-10 Hz）条件下，超强激光器可以执行 PAA，其性能可与传统加速器实现的性能相媲美。此外，激光驱动的 PAA 可以与现有激光设施中正在研究的互补激光驱动材料表征技术共同开发。超强激光可以执行 PAA，其性能可与传统加速器相媲美。此外，激光驱动的 PAA 可以与现有激光设施中正在研究的互补激光驱动材料表征技术共同开发。超强激光可以执行 PAA，其性能可与传统加速器相媲美。此外，激光驱动的 PAA 可以与现有激光设施中正在研究的互补激光驱动材料表征技术共同开发。