Article
New accelerator concepts for particle therapy
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Published: | September 24, 2009 |
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The advent of ultra intense laser with focused intensities exceeding 1021 W/cm2 has opened the field of laser driven particle acceleration with unmatched beam parameters. This field has attracted great attention and many groups have begun to explore the new field of relativistic laser plasma interaction and particle acceleration. Especially the acceleration of large numbers of protons and heavy ions to tens of MeV over distances less than a millimeter has lead to the vision of compact particle sources for various applications. One of the most intriguing applications would be the development of ultra compact accelerators for biomedical and therapeutical applications. Also the special temporal structure of the laser accelerated ions could open new possibilities for biomedical research with highest temporal resolution. We report on the current status of basic research, the currently available beam parameters and their manipulation for different applications. In addition to latest experiments we also report on advances in theory and ongoing and future experiments on the route toward higher particle energies, beam quality and average intensity. We will show that laser accelerated ion beams offer great potential for future application, but intense basic research is required to match the reliable and well controlled performance of conventional accelerators. We finally will report on international programs to reach new frontiers in laser driven particle acceleration in the coming years.