Advanced laser-ion acceleration strategies towards next generation healthcare

该项目旨在达到创新医疗保健技术发展的一个重要里程碑：以超过深层肿瘤治疗和诊断阈值（~200 MeV/nucleon）的能量传输密集、高重复离子束的全光传输。从加速器科学的直接影响来看，计划解决方案的灵活性和紧凑性，加上激光系统的其他潜在优势，可能会彻底改变癌症治疗方法。在超强激光脉冲与物质相互作用过程中达到的极端条件，如果得到适当的控制，可以导致具有独特性质的离子束的快速加速。在过去的十年里，对这些激光引发的加速机制的研究，以及对产生的离子束的表征和优化，已经成为高场科学中最活跃和最富有成果的领域之一。英国科学家一直走在激光驱动离子源开发的前沿。在LIBRA的最后阶段，出现了新的加速机制，主要基于强大的激光脉冲对被照射物质施加的巨大压力，这有望使粒子加速能力发生阶跃变化。高电流离子束（质子和碳）的一个关键应用领域是癌症治疗。在6年的时间里，通过一系列协调和相互关联的活动，我们的目标是推进激光离子加速，使激光驱动的光束成为传统射频加速器在医学治疗中的重要替代品。除了降低粒子治疗中心的成本和占地面积（限制其在全球范围内发展的主要因素）之外，激光驱动的方法将提供许多目前无法获得的优势特性：在物种之间按需切换（H和C，可选择其他光离子，如Be和Li）和能量控制；增强诊断，同步质子和x射线脉冲，以及现场同位素生产的正电子发射断层扫描。我们的目标是让英国科学在高能离子源的开发中发挥主导作用，利用我们联盟拥有的特殊专业知识。

The project aims to reach an important milestone towards the development of innovative healthcare technologies: all-optical delivery of dense, high-repetition ion beams at energies above the threshold for deep-seated tumour treatment and diagnosis (~200 MeV/nucleon). Driven from an immediate impact in accelerator science, the flexibility and compactness of the planned solutions, jointly with other potential advantages of laser-based systems, could revolutionise cancer treatment methods. The extreme conditions reached during the interaction of an ultra-intense laser pulse with matter can lead, if suitably controlled, to the rapid acceleration of beams of ions with unique properties. The study of these laser-initiated acceleration mechanisms, and the characterization and optimization of the ion beams produced, have been, over the past decade, one of the most active and fruitful areas of high-field science. UK scientists have been at the forefront of the development of laser-driven ion sources. During the final stages of LIBRA, novel acceleration mechanisms have emerged, mostly based on the enormous pressure exerted by powerful laser pulses onto irradiated matter, which promise a step change in particle acceleration capabilities. A key area of application of high-current ion beams (proton and carbon) is in cancer therapy. Through a series of coordinated and interlinked activities over a 6 year period, we aim to advance laser-ion acceleration to the point at which laser-driven beams will become a serious alternative to conventional RF accelerators for medical therapy. Besides offering a reduction in cost and footprint of particle therapy centres (major factors limiting their growth worldwide), a laser-driven approach would offer a number of advantageous features currently unavailable: on-demand switching between species (H and C, with options for other light ions such Be and Li) and energy control; enhanced diagnosis, with synchronized proton and x-ray pulses, and on-site isotope production for Positron Emission Tomography. Our ambition is for UK science to play a leading role in the development of high-energy ion sources, by capitalizing on the exceptional pool of expertise available to our consortium.