Success in the further development of proton accelerators at the HZDR

A team at the HZDR’s Institute of Radiation Physics has used an innovative technology to achieve unprecedented energy levels in proton acceleration. They did this by exploiting a property of laser pulses which is normally considered “unwelcome”: that part of the energy which arrives ahead of a laser beam. The researchers shone this light at a plastic film in a vacuum chamber and used it to modify the film by heating it. This has a positive effect: when the main pulse, following behind the flash of light, strikes the film, less of it is reflected because the outer layer of the film becomes virtually “transparent”. The main pulse is therefore able to penetrate deeper inside the material, giving users deeper insights into the interior of materials.

Potential benefits for the future

This innovation could lead to a number of optimisations, not just in materials research. A laser accelerator with such a high energy yield could be of interest in the future as a compact accelerator for treating and studying tumours. This is one of the issues being studied at the Hi-Acts Tech Lab Novel Compact Laser Plasma Accelerators. As a result, more research groups than before would have access to  this technology. Until now, scientists have had to share a few large, conventional therapy accelerators. Another advantage of compact laser accelerators would be their significantly lower power consumption. In addition, the process could also be used to produce neutrons – something that the Hi-Acts Tech Lab Accelerators for (Thermal) Neutrons to Obtain Theranostic Radionuclides is working on.

All these research approaches share the same goal: to reach energy levels beyond 200 MeV.