J. Pipek

Laser-accelerated ion beam diagnostics with TOF detectors for the ELIMED beam line

Laser-accelerated ion beams could represent the future of particle acceleration in several multidisciplinary applications, as for instance medical physics, hadrontherapy and imaging field, being a concrete alternative to old paradigm of acceleration, characterized by huge and complex machines. In this framework, following on from the ELIMED collaboration, launched in 2012 between INFN-LNS and ELI-Beamlines, in 2014 a three-years contract has been signed between the two institutions for the design and the development of a complete transport beam-line for high-energy ion beams (up to 60 MeV) coupled with innovative diagnostics and in-air dosimetry devices. The beam-line will be installed at the ELI-Beamlines facility and will be available for users. The measurement of the beam characteristics, such as energy spectra, angular distributions and dose-rate is mandatory to optimize the transport as well as the beam delivery at the irradiation point. In order to achieve this purpose, the development of appropriate on-line diagnostics devices capable to detect high-pulsed beams with high accuracy, represents a crucial point in the ELIMED beamline development. The diagnostics solution, based on the use of silicon carbide (SiC) and diamond detectors using TOF technique, will be presented together with the preliminary results obtained with laser-accelerated proton beams.

TOF technique for laser-driven proton beam diagnostics for the ELIMED beamline

The Time of Flight (TOF) method for laser-driven ion beam diagnostics has been extensively investigated so far for low energy ion diagnostics and several works, reported in literature [1,2], have shown its efficiency in the measurement of particle beam characteristics such as ion species, energy spectrum and current. Moreover, such technique allows obtaining a shot-to-shot on-line monitoring of optically accelerated particles, necessary to control the reproducibility of the accelerated beam and to deliver a beam suitable for any kind of applications. For this reason, the ELIMED beamline [3,4], which will be entirely developed at INFN-LNS and installed in 2017 within the ion beamline ELIMAIA (ELI Multidisciplinary Applications of laser-Ion Acceleration) experimental hall at ELI-Beamlines in Prague, will be equipped with an on-line diagnostics system composed by silicon carbide and diamond detectors, using the TOF technique. In this contribution, the procedure developed for TOF signal analysis will be briefly reported.

Time of Flight based diagnostics for high energy laser driven ion beams

Nowadays the innovative high power laser-based ion acceleration technique is one of the most interesting challenges in particle acceleration field, showing attractive characteristics for future multidisciplinary applications, including medical ones. Nevertheless, peculiarities of optically accelerated ion beams make mandatory the development of proper transport, selection and diagnostics devices in order to deliver stable and controlled ion beams for multidisciplinary applications. This is the main purpose of the ELIMAIA (ELI Multidisciplinary Applications of laser-Ion Acceleration) beamline that will be realized and installed within 2018 at the ELI-Beamlines research center in the Czech Republic, where laser driven high energy ions, up to 60 MeV/n, will be available for users. In particular, a crucial role will be played by the on-line diagnostics system, recently developed in collaboration with INFN-LNS (Italy), consisting of TOF detectors, placed along the beamline (at different detection distances) to provide online monitoring of key characteristics of delivered beams, such as energy, fluence and ion species. In this contribution an overview on the ELIMAIA available ion diagnostics will be briefly given along with the preliminary results obtained during a test performed with high energy laser-driven proton beams accelerated at the VULCAN PW-laser available at RAL facility (U.K.).

Monte Carlo simulation of the ELIMED beamline using Geant4

In this paper, we present a Geant4-based Monte Carlo application for ELIMED beamline [1-6] simulation, including its features and several preliminary results. We have developed the application to aid the design of the beamline, to estimate various beam characteristics, and to assess the amount of secondary radiation. In future, an enhanced version of this application will support the beamline users when preparing their experiments.

Status of the ELIMED Beamline at the ELIMAIA facility

Laser-target acceleration represents a very promising alternative to conventional accelerators for several potential applications, from the nuclear physics to the medical ones. However, some extreme features, not suitable for multidisciplinary applications, as the wide energy and angular spreads, characterize optically accelerated ion beams. Therefore, beyond the improvements at the laser-target interaction level, a lot of efforts have been recently devoted to the development of specific beam-transport devices in order to obtain controlled and reproducible output beams. In this framework, a three years contract has been signed between the INFN-LNS (IT) and Eli-Beamlines-IoP (CZ) to provide the design and the realization of a complete transport beam-line, named ELIMED, dedicated to the transport, diagnostics and dosimetry of laser-driven ion beams. The transport devices will be composed by a set of super-strong permanent magnet quadrupoles able to collect and focus laser driven ions up to 70 MeV/u, and a magnetic chicane made of conventional electromagnetic dipoles to select particles within a narrow energy range. Here, the actual status of the design and development of these magnetic systems is described.

Faraday cup: absolute dosimetry for ELIMED beam line

The scientific community has shown a growing interest towards multidisciplinary applications of laser-driven beams. In this framework, the ELIMED (ELI-Beamlines MEDical and multidisciplinary applications) beamline will be the first transport beamline dedicated to the medical and multidisciplinary studies with laser-accelerated ion beams. Detectors for dosimetry represent one of key-element of the ELIMED beamline, allowing a dose delivering with good result as required in the clinical applications. In this contribution, a Faraday Cup for absolute dosimetry, designed and realized at INFN-LNS, is described.

Transversal dose distribution optimization for laser-accelerated proton beam medical applications by means of Geant4

The main purpose of this paper is to quantitatively study the possibility of delivering dose distributions of clinical relevance with laser-driven proton beams. A Monte Carlo application has been developed with the Geant4 toolkit, simulating the ELIMED (MEDical and multidisciplinary application at ELI-Beamlines) transport and dosimetry beam line which is being currently installed at the ELI-Beamlines in Prague (CZ). The beam line will be used to perform irradiations for multidisciplinary studies, with the purpose of demonstrating the possible use of optically accelerated ion beams for therapeutic purposes. The ELIMED Geant4-based application, already validated against reference transport codes, accurately simulates each single element of the beam line, necessary to collect the accelerated beams and to select them in energy. Transversal dose distributions at the irradiation point have been studied and optimized to try to quantitatively answer the question if such kind of beam lines, and specifically the systems developed for ELIMED in Prague, will be actually able to transport ion beams not only for multidisciplinary applications, such as pitcher-catcher nuclear reactions (e.g. neutrons), PIXE analysis for cultural heritage and space radiation, but also for delivering dose patterns of clinical relevance in a future perspective of possible medical applications.

Status of the ELIMED multidisciplinary and medical beam-line at ELI-Beamlines

Nowadays, one of the biggest challenges consists in using high intensity laser-target interaction to generate high-energy ions for medical purposes, eventually replacing the old paradigm of acceleration characterized by huge and complex machines. In order to investigate the feasibility of using laser-driven ion beams for multidisciplinary application, a dedicated beam transport line will be installed at the ELI-Beamlines facility in Prague (CZ), as a part of the User-oriented ELIMAIA beam-line dedicated to ion acceleration and their potential applications. The beam-line section dedicated to transport and dosimetric endpoints is called ELIMED (ELI-Beamlines MEDical and multidisciplinary applications) and will be developed by the INFN-LNS.

Design of a Collection and Selection System for High Energy Laser-driven Ion Beams

Laser-target acceleration represents a very promising alternative to conventional accelerators for several potential applications, from the nuclear physics to the medical ones. However, some extreme features, not suitable for multidisciplinary applications, as the wide energy and angular spreads are typical of optically accelerated ion beams. Therefore, beyond the improvements at the laser-target interaction level, a lot of efforts have been recently devoted to the development of specific beam-transport devices in order to obtain controlled and reproducible output beams. In this framework, a three years contract has been signed between INFN-LNS (IT) and Eli-Beamlines-IoP (CZ) to provide the design and the realization of a complete transport beam-line, named ELIMED, dedicated to the transport, diagnostics and dosimetry of laser-driven ion beams. The transport devices will be composed by a set of super-strong permanent magnet quadrupoles able to collect and focus laser driven ions up to 70MeV/u, and a magnetic chicane made of conventional electromagnetic dipole to select particles within a narrow energy range. Here, the design and development of these magnetic systems is described.