We report our recent progress using a high-power, picosecond CO2 laser for Thomson scattering and ion acceleration experiments. These experiments capitalize on certain advantages of long-wavelength CO2 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 CO2 laser. This development will enable an advance to the laser-driven proton cancer therapy.

Pogorelsky, I., Babzien, M., Polyanskiy, M., Yakimenko, V., Dover, N., Palmer, C., et al. (2011). Lasers as particle accelerators in medicine: From laser-driven protons to imaging with Thomson sources. In 21st International Conference on Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, CAARI 2010 (pp.386-390) [10.1063/1.3586126].

Lasers as particle accelerators in medicine: From laser-driven protons to imaging with Thomson sources

CARPINELLI, Massimo;
2011

Abstract

We report our recent progress using a high-power, picosecond CO2 laser for Thomson scattering and ion acceleration experiments. These experiments capitalize on certain advantages of long-wavelength CO2 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 CO2 laser. This development will enable an advance to the laser-driven proton cancer therapy.
paper
Cancer therapy; CO2 laser; Electron beams; Ion acceleration; Thomson scattering; X-ray imaging;
English
21st International Conference on Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, CAARI 2010 - 8 August 2010 through 13 August 2010
2010
21st International Conference on Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, CAARI 2010
978-0-7354-0891-3
2011
1336
386
390
none
Pogorelsky, I., Babzien, M., Polyanskiy, M., Yakimenko, V., Dover, N., Palmer, C., et al. (2011). Lasers as particle accelerators in medicine: From laser-driven protons to imaging with Thomson sources. In 21st International Conference on Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, CAARI 2010 (pp.386-390) [10.1063/1.3586126].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/389592
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