Laser-accelerated particles (protons and electrons alike) feature very short duration (often below 1 ps) and high peak current (~ kA). These characteristics makes them suitable for depositing dose in living tissues over a timescale at the heterogeneous chemistry level, at peak doserates exceeding several $10^9$ Gy/min. The effect of fractionated dose deposition and ultra-high dose rate has...
Charged particle radiotherapy is nowadays used in an increasing number of centres worldwide.
In particular, carbon ions have shown many advantages for the treatment of radioresistant tumours, thanks to their higher Linear Energy Transfer (LET) and Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE).
The complexity of the conventional carbon therapy facilities has stimulated the investigation of...
Laser WakeField Acceleration allows electron bunches with energy in the range of several tens to hundreds of MeV to be delivered by compact, table-top devices, thus holding the promise for a possible widespread deployment of such machines into medium scale clinical environments. This has spurred the study of the properties of the so-called very high energy electrons (VHEE) which could be...
Laser-driven proton acceleration is a field of growing interest, in particular for its numerous applications, including in the field of materials science. A benefit of these laser-based particle sources is their potential for a relative compactness in addition to some characteristics at the source that differ from those of conventional, radio-frequency based proton sources. These features...
The accelerator R&D facility SINBAD (Short innovative bunches and accelerators at DESY) will drive multiple independent experiments in the fields of production of ultrashort electron bunches and test of advanced high gradient acceleration concepts.
The SINBAD-ARES (Accelerator Research Experiment at SINBAD) linac has been designed to allow the production of high brightness ultrashort electron...
The ELI Attosecond Light Pulse Source (ELI-ALPS) facility is the Hungarian pillar of the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project aimed at high-repetition rate, ultrafast science driven by ultrashort few-cycle laser pulses. ELI-ALPS aims to provide ultrashort light pulses from the THz to the x-ray regime as well as high-energy particle sources, all at high repetition rates for developers and...
Laser-wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) are high acceleration-gradient plasma-based particle accelerators capable of producing ultra-relativistic electron beams. Within the strong focusing fields of the wakefield, accelerated electrons undergo betatron oscillations, emitting a bright pulse of X-rays with a micrometer-scale source size that may be used for imaging applications. Non-destructive...
High-intensity laser facilities can now routinely generate GeV electron bunches and broadband multi-keV X-rays using laser-driven wakefield accelerators. These energetic sources are ultra-short in duration (femtoseconds) with a small source size (microns) and low divergence (miliradians). They are also inherently synchronised to the drive laser itself, making pump-probe setups possible.
The...
The realization of compact positron source is of great importance for a wide range of applications such as positron annihilation spectroscopy for material science. Moreover, a number of applications could benefit from short pulse duration (sub-100 ps) positron beams.
The interaction of a high-intensity laser with high-Z solid targets can be used to produce a population of relativistic...
