Laser-driven ions accelerators for applications in radiobiology
Laser-driven plasmas generated in the interaction of a focused high power laser pulse solid surface – can sustain electrical field strength of 100 GV/m and above. This allows for compact and efficient particle acceleration ¡, generating electron pulses with hundreds of MeV and ion pulses with up to 100 MeV kinetic energies on mm and µm spatial scales, respectively. The particle pulses are ultra-short with femto to picosecond pulse duration and feature extremely high pulse currents and dose, of relevance for instance for ultra-fast probing of matter or radiobiology at extremely high pulse rates.
This lecture will firstly focus on laser-driven ion acceleration from solid targets. giving an introduction to the physical processes involved, the required laser and experimental infrastructure as well as the current status of the field. Following this general introduction, high-dose radiobiology as an exciting field of application for laser-driven ion pulses will be discussed, covering ion source requirements, dose application solutions as well as dosimetry developments.
