Lasers As Particle Accelerators In Medicine: From Laser-Driven Protons To Imaging With Thomson Sources

Journal Article · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3586126· OSTI ID:21513383

Pogorelsky, I V; Babzien, M; Polyanskiy, M N; Yakimenko, V ^[1]; Dover, N P; Palmer, C A. J.; Najmudin, Z ^[2]; Shkolnikov, P ^[3]; Williams, O; Rosenzweig, J ^[4]; Oliva, P; Carpinelli, M; Golosio, B ^[5]; Delogu, P; Stefanini, A ^[6]; Endrizzi, M

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1. Brookhaven National Laboratory, Accelerator Test Facility, Upton NY 11973 (United States)
2. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, SW7 2BW (United Kingdom)
3. State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794 (United States)
4. University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
5. Struttura Dipartimentale di Matematica e Fisica, Univ. di Sassari and INFN, Sezione di Cagliari 07100 (Italy)
6. Dipartimento di Fisica 'E. Fermi', Universita di Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa (Italy) and INFN, Sezione di Pisa 56127 (Italy)

We report our recent progress using a high-power, picosecond CO{sub 2} laser for Thomson scattering and ion acceleration experiments. These experiments capitalize on certain advantages of long-wavelength CO{sub 2} lasers, such as their high number of photons per energy unit and beneficial wavelength- scaling of the electrons' ponderomotive energy and critical plasma frequency. High X-ray fluxes produced in the interactions of the counter-propagating laser- and electron-beams for obtaining single-shot, high-contrast images of biological objects. The laser, focused on a hydrogen jet, generated a monoenergetic proton beam via the radiation-pressure mechanism. The energy of protons produced by this method scales linearly with the laser's intensity. We present a plan for scaling the process into the range of 100-MeV proton energy via upgrading the CO{sub 2} laser. This development will enable an advance to the laser-driven proton cancer therapy.

• OSTI ID: 21513383
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1336, Issue 1; Conference: CAARI 2010: 21. International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, Fort Worth, TX (United States), 8-13 Aug 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3586126; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ACCELERATION
ACCELERATORS
CARBON DIOXIDE LASERS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
HYDROGEN
IONS
LANGMUIR FREQUENCY
MEV RANGE 100-1000
NEOPLASMS
PHOTONS
PONDEROMOTIVE FORCE
PROTON BEAMS
PROTONS
RADIATION PRESSURE
RADIOTHERAPY
SCALING
THOMSON SCATTERING
WAVELENGTHS
X RADIATION
BARYONS
BEAMS
BOSONS
CHARGED PARTICLES
DISEASES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
GAS LASERS
HADRONS
INELASTIC SCATTERING
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LASERS
LEPTON BEAMS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MEDICINE
MEV RANGE
NONMETALS
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
NUCLEON BEAMS
NUCLEONS
PARTICLE BEAMS
RADIATIONS
RADIOLOGY
SCATTERING
THERAPY