Demonstration of Fusion-Evaporation and Direct-Interaction Nuclear Reactions using High-Intensity Laser-Plasma-Accelerated Ion Beams

McKenna, P.; Ledingham, K. W. D.; McCanny, T.; Singhal, R.P.; Spencer, I.; Santala, M.; Beg, F. N.; Krushelnick, K.; Tatarakis, M.; Wei, M. S.; Clark, Ε. L.; Clarke, R. J.; Lancaster, Kate; Norreys, P.; Spohr, K.; Chapman, R.; Zepf, M.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.91.075006

Cited by 72 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The produced proton/ion beams accelerated by this mechanism (called Target Normal Sheath Acceleration -TNSA) exhibit advantageous characteristics, such as short pulse lengths, high currents and low transverse emittance, but they also show exponential energy spectra with almost 100% energy spread. So far, for proton beams the maximum energy that has been achieved is ∼60 MeV [3] and for ions (typically carbon and oxygen) ∼10 MeV/n [11]. The large energy spread and the relatively low maximum energy remain the significant impediments for this technique to be applied for medical purposes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dosimetry and spectral analysis of a radiobiological experiment using laser-driven proton beams

et al. 2011

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Abstract. Laser-driven proton and ion acceleration is an area of increasing research interest given the recent development of short pulse-high intensity lasers. Several groups have reported experiments to understand whether a laser-driven beam can be applied for radiobiological purposes and in each of these the method to obtain dose and spectral analysis was slightly different. The difficulty with these studies is that the very large instantaneous dose rate is a challenge for commonly used dosimetry techniques, so that other more sophisticated procedures need to be explored. This article aims to explain a method for obtaining the energetic spectrum and the dose of a laser-driven proton beam irradiating a cell dish used for radiobiology studies. The procedure includes the use of a magnet to have charge and energy separation of the laser driven beam, Gafchromic films to have information on dose and partially on energy, and a Monte Carlo code to expand the measured data in order to obtain specific details of the proton spectrum on the cells. Two specific correction factors have to be calculated: one to take in account the variation of dose response of the films as a function of the proton energy and the other to obtain the dose to the cell layer starting from the dose measured on the films. This method, particularly suited to irradiation delivered in a single laser shot, can be applied in any other radiobiological experiment performed with laser driven proton beams, with the only condition that the initial proton spectrum has to be at least roughly known.The method was tested in an experiment conducted at Queen's University of Belfast using the TARANIS laser, where the mean energy of the protons crossing the cells was between 0.9 and 5 MeV, the instantaneous dose rate was estimated to be close to 10 9 Gy/s and doses between 0.8-5 Gy were delivered to the cells in a single laser shot. The combination of the applied corrections modified the initial estimate of dose by up to 40% Dosimetry and spectral analysis of a radiobiological experiment using laser-driven proton beams2

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dosimetry and spectral analysis of a radiobiological experiment using laser-driven proton beams

et al. 2011

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“…Protons can also be accelerated from the front side of the target by charge separation-induced fields, but the energies are usually lower [9,32] and the beam quality is inferior to those of rear surface accelerated protons. Removing the hydrogen-containing contaminants from the target surfaces, for example, by heating of the target [34], leads to the acceleration of ions from the target material itself, such as carbon, fluorine, aluminum, lead, or iron [9,34,36,37]. The observed energies may reach 10 MeV per nucleon while the beam quality is similar to the proton beam.…”

Section: Solid Targets and Proton Accelerationmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…It has been shown that the ion energies can reach 10 MeV/nucleon, which results in 650 MeV energy for Fe-ions [9]. These ions can react with a secondary target: they may fuse and form highly excited compound nuclei, which evaporate neutrons, protons, and alpha-particles [9,37]. Depending on their initial excitation, that is, incident ion energy the reaction channel may be different, corresponding to a different cross section and product nucleus.…”

Section: Ion-induced Nuclear Reactionsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Laser-Triggered Nuclear Reactions

Ewald

2006

Lasers and Nuclei

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Nearly 30 ago, laser physicists dreamed of the laser as a particle accelerator [1]. With the acceleration of electrons, protons, and ions up to energies of several tens of MeV by the interaction of an intense laser pulse with matter, this dream has become reality within the last ten years. Today, highly intense laser systems drive microscopic accelerators. Nuclear reactions are induced by the accelerated particles. This article intends to outline the unique properties of laser-based particle and bremsstrahlung sources, and the diversity of new ideas that arise from the combination of lasers and nuclear physics.Triggering nuclear reactions by a laser is done indirectly by accelerating electrons to relativistic velocities during the interaction of a very intense laser pulse with a laser-generated plasma. These electrons give rise to the generation of energetic bremsstrahlung, when they are stopped in a target of high atomic number. They can as well be used to accelerate protons or heavier ions to several tens of MeV. Those bremsstrahlung photons, protons, and ions with energies in the typical range of the nuclear giant dipole resonances of about a few to several tens of MeV may then induce nuclear reactions, such as fission, the emission of photoneutrons, or proton-induced emission of nucleons. To induce one of these reactions, a certain energy threshold -the activation energy of the reaction -must be exceeded.Since the first demonstration experiments, nuclear reactions were used for the spectral characterization of laser-accelerated electrons and protons as well as bremsstrahlung [2,3,4,5]. A whole series of classical known nuclear reactions has been shown to be feasible with lasers, such as photo-induced fission [6,7], proton-and ion-induced reactions [5,8,9], or deuterium fusion [10,11,12,13,14]. Recently the cross section of the (γ,n)-reaction of 129 I was measured in laser-based experiments [15,16,17]. This last step from the pure observation of nuclear reactions to the measurement of nuclear parameters is of importance regarding the small size of

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“…When an electrostatic shock is formed in a plasma with velocity v sh , incoming ions to the shock are reflected from the shock front with v ref ∼ 2v sh . The accelerated ions in this way have been expected to be used for various applications such as cancer therapy [10][11][12], isotope generation [13], and proton imaging [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of laser polarizations on shock generation and shock ion acceleration in overdense plasmas

et al. 2016

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The effects of laser-pulse polarization on the generation of an electrostatic shock in an overdense plasma were investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. We found, from one-dimensional simulations, that total and average energies of reflected ions from a circular polarization-(CP) driven shock front are a few times higher than those from a linear polarization-(LP) driven one for a given pulse energy. Moreover, it was discovered that the pulse transmittance is the single dominant factor for determining the CP-shock formation, while the LP shock is affected by the plasma scale length as well as the transmittance. In two-dimensional simulations, it is observed that the transverse instability, such as Weibel-like instability, can be suppressed more efficiently by CP pulses.

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Demonstration of Fusion-Evaporation and Direct-Interaction Nuclear Reactions using High-Intensity Laser-Plasma-Accelerated Ion Beams

Cited by 72 publications

References 20 publications

Dosimetry and spectral analysis of a radiobiological experiment using laser-driven proton beams

Dosimetry and spectral analysis of a radiobiological experiment using laser-driven proton beams

Laser-Triggered Nuclear Reactions

Effects of laser polarizations on shock generation and shock ion acceleration in overdense plasmas

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