We report our recent progress using a high-power, picosecond CO 2 laser for Thomson scattering and ion acceleration experiments. These experiments capitalize on certain advantages of long-wavelength CO 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 2 laser. This development will enable an advance to the laser-driven proton cancer therapy. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.
Pogorelsky, I.V., Babzien, M., Polyanskiy, M.N., Yakimenko, V., Dover, N.P., Palmer, C.A.J., et al. (2011). Lasers as particle accelerators in medicine: From laser-driven protons to imaging with Thomson sources. In APPLICATION OF ACCELERATORS IN RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY: TWENTY-FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (pp.386-390). Melville : AMERICAN INSTITUTE PHYSICS [10.1063/1.3586126].
Lasers as particle accelerators in medicine: From laser-driven protons to imaging with Thomson sources
DELOGU, P.;Endrizzi, M.
2011-01-01
Abstract
We report our recent progress using a high-power, picosecond CO 2 laser for Thomson scattering and ion acceleration experiments. These experiments capitalize on certain advantages of long-wavelength CO 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 2 laser. This development will enable an advance to the laser-driven proton cancer therapy. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.
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https://hdl.handle.net/11365/1006379
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