Dr. LASER - Medical applications of high power lasers

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Cancer radiotherapy with laser accelerated ions

Due to the sharply localized dose deposition possible with high energy ions (e.g., 100s of MeV/u C-ions), and to their high cancer killing power, ion therapy is one of most benefic cancer treatment modalities. At the same time, therapeutic ions are very expensive and difficult to produce with conventional accelerators, in particular with the ultrahigh dose rate (UHDR) and the high dose per pulse required for the FLASH effect. 10 PW class lasers could produce therapeutic doses of ions at reduced cost and complexity, and with ultrahigh dose rate. The picture shows the number of C-ions accelerated in the 100±5 MeV/u band (an energy sufficient to penetrate e.g., the human breast) as a function of foil thickness for 5 and 10 PW lasers, computed through 2D/q3D PIC simulations at the ELI-NP Theory and Simulation group.


Number of C-ions predicted to be accelerated in the 100±5 MeV/u band.


High sensitivity and low dose phase-contrast X-ray imaging for medical diagnostics

Soft tissues have poor visibility and require a large radiation dose in conventional, absorption-contrast X-ray imaging. Recent research at ELI-NP shows that phase-contrast imaging with multi-meter long and µm-period grating interferometers can dramatically increase the visibility and lower the dose for soft tissues. Fig. 2 compares conventional absorption-contrast and phase-contrast images of nylon fibrils mimicking breast cancer in a mammographic phantom, obtained in experiments at the ELI-NP X-ray Imaging Laboratory. The visibility of the fibrils is much higher in the interferometric images. Conventional X-ray sources cannot produce however sufficient photons for clinical imaging at multi-meter distances. Instead, 100 TW-class lasers can produce through the betatron or the inverse Compton mechanism, intense, directional, and µm-spot X-ray sources ideal for phase-contrast imaging. In addition, our experiments indicate that µm spot laser X-sources may enable further lowering the dose, as illustrated by the rightmost image in the below picture.


Conventional and interferometric X-ray images of fibrils mimicking cancer in mammography phantom


Laser based production of short-lived PET isotopes

Short-lived isotopes enable cancer diagnostic with less radiation dose to the patient, but are expensive to produce in hospitals using conventional accelerators. High power and repetition rate lasers could produce such isotopes at lower cost, as well as in a more flexible manner, using e.g., (p,n) or (d,n) reactions. High repetition rate, low-cost and low debris laser targets are essential for this application. the figure below shows a kHz repetition rate, µm thin, “water leaf” target developed at the ELI-NP Laser System Department.


Photo and laser interferogram of µm thin water leaf target

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