Intense high-quality medical proton beams via laser fields

Feasibility of electron cyclotron autoresonance acceleration by a short terahertz pulse

A vacuum auto-resonance accelerator scheme for electrons, which employs terahertz radiation and currently available magnetic fields, is suggested. Based on numerical simulations, parameter values, which could make the scheme experimentally feasible, are identified and discussed.

Simultaneous generation of monoenergetic tunable protons and carbon ions from laser-driven nanofoils

Simultaneous generation of monoenergetic tunable protons and carbon ions from intense laser multi-component nanofoil interaction is demonstrated by using particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that, the protons with the largest charge-to-mass ratio are instantly separated from other ion species and are efficiently accelerated in the "phase stable" way. The carbon ions always ride on the heavier oxygen ion front with an electron-filling gap between the protons and carbon ions. At the cost of widely spread oxygen ions, monoenergetic collimated protons and carbon ions are obtained simultaneously. By modulating the heavier ion densities in the foil, it is capable to control the final beam quality, which is well interpreted by a simple analytical model.

Dense monoenergetic proton beams from chirped laser-plasma interaction

Interaction of a frequency-chirped laser pulse with single protons and a hydrogen gas target is studied analytically and by means of particle-in-cell simulations, respectively. The feasibility of generating ultraintense (10(7) particles per bunch) and phase-space collimated beams of protons (energy spread of about 1%) is demonstrated. Phase synchronization of the protons and the laser field, guaranteed by the appropriate chirping of the laser pulse, allows the particles to gain sufficient kinetic energy (around 250 MeV) required for such applications as hadron cancer therapy, from state-of-the-art laser systems of intensities of the order of 10(21) W/cm(2).