A structured plasma profile for an optimized laser-driven accelerator of quality enhanced very high energy electrons (VHEE)

Year: 2026

Authors: Avella F., Tomassini P., Labate L., Gizzi L.A.

Autors Affiliation: Natl Res Council CNR INO, Natl Inst Opt, Pisa, Italy; Sect Pisa, INFN, Pisa, Italy; IFIN HH, Extreme Light Infrastructure Nucl Phys, 30 Reactorului St, Magurele 077125, Romania; Univ Pisa, Phys Dept Enr Fermi, Pisa, Italy.

Abstract: We present a numerical study on a structured plasma target to simultaneously improve the energy spread and divergence of a laser-driven very high energy electron (VHEE) beam designed for VHEE-radiotherapy (RT) application. The main concept to obtain such an enhanced quality beam is to localize the injection, acceleration, and extraction of the electrons by tailoring the plasma target density profile. The injection space is truncated by spatially confining the ionization-injection dopant, while the rest of the target is filled with He atoms. In order to reduce the emittance growth during the bunch extraction, an optimized density downramp profile is adopted. By using a 100 TW class Ti:Sa laser system and an ionization-injection scheme in the blow-out regime, a relatively high charge (>= 120 pC) beam with mean energy >= 200 MeV, rms energy spread <= 6%, and normalized emittance epsilon(nx) < 4 mm mrad can be obtained. This combination of bunch specification enables an efficient transport and focusing of the particles, thus making the beam of particular interest for VHEE-RT. Journal/Review: PHYSICS OF PLASMAS

Volume: 33 (4)      Pages from: 43101-1  to: 43101-13

More Information: This work is financially supported by the NextGenerationEU Integrated Infrastructure Initiative in Photonic and Quantum Sciences (I-PHOQS), CUP B53C22001750006, ID D2B8D520, and IR0000016. The authors also acknowledge contributions from: Tuscany Health Ecosystem (THE)-Spoke 1: Advanced Radiotherapies and Diagnostics in Oncology, funded by the NextGenerationEU (PNRR), ECS00000017, D.D. MUR No. 1055, 23 May 2022; Horizon 2020 Framework Programme Research and Innovation; Program EuPRAXIA Preparatory Phase (No. 101079773); EuPRAXIA Advanced Photon Sources-EuAPS (CUP I93C21000160006, IR0000030); INFN CSN5 funded project FRIDA; PACRI-European Union Grant Agreement (No. 101188004). This work was partially supported by the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization via the NUCLEU Program No. PN 23210105, the ELI-RO grants ELI-RO/RDI 2024 AMAP and ELI-RO RDI 2024 SPARC. P.T. also acknowledges support from the European Union and the Romanian Government for the project Medical Applications of High-Power Laser; SMIS Code No. 326475. The Romanian government has also supported ELI-NP through the IOSIN funds as a Facility of National Interest.
KeyWords: Beam; Injection
DOI: 10.1063/5.0315070