Proton Acceleration to Therapeutic Energies with Ultra-Intense Ultra-Clean and Ultra-Short Laser Pulses
- FOCUS Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States)
- P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States)
The acceleration of protons to therapeutic energies of over 200 MeV by short-pulse, high-intensity lasers requires very high temporal intensity contrast. We describe improvements to the contrast ratio of the laser pulse produced by a multi-terawatt chirped pulsed amplification (CPA) Ti:sapphire laser for the application of proton acceleration. The modified cross-polarized wave generation (XPW) technique has been implemented on the Hercules laser at the University of Michigan to reject the low-intensity amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) preceding the main laser pulse. We demonstrate that by using two BaF2 crystals, the XPW technique yields a 10-11 contrast ratio between the main peak and the ASE for a 50 TW laser system which can be maintained up to 500 TW. Such contrast may be sufficient for a preplasma-free interaction of 225 TW laser pulses with sub-micron thick foils at an intensity of {approx}10{sup 22} W/cm{sup 2}. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations were conducted under the anticipated experimental conditions: 6.75 J, 30 fs laser pulse without a prepulse, focused to a spot size of 1.2 microns (FWHM) on thin foils of varying thickness. The performed PIC simulations show that for a 0.2 {mu}m thick hydrogen foil protons with energy up to 200 MeV can be produced. In the case of the two-layer aluminum-hydrogen foil, the maximum energy of accelerated protons is about 150 MeV, but the flux-energy spectrum of the accelerated protons has a narrow peak at high energies, which may be more advantageous for medical applications.
- OSTI ID:
- 20898705
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 877, Issue 1; Conference: 12. advanced accelerator concepts workshop, Lake Geneva, WI (United States), 10-15 Jul 2006; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2409166; (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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