Proposal for a new type of accelerator for electrons and protons

摘要

A new laser-based acceleration structure for protons, with characteristics appropriate for the radio therapy is proposed in the present work. The structure is designed in two stages of acceleration - the first one accelerates electrons to GeV energies and the second one uses these electrons in order to accelerate protons in the hundreds of MeV range. It uses commercial available pulsed lasers and it is expected to have the geometrical sizes that fit into a usual oncological treatment room. The accelerated proton beams have energies of hundreds of MeV with a medium to large spread, a high repetition rate, geometrical dimensions and emittance adequate for a small size medical accelerator facility. The present proposal is mainly an attempt coming from the medical community to bring into the attention of accelerator scientists the huge need for small size treatment accelerators, nowadays feasible grace to the last decades progress in laser technologies.