Search

Abstract: This paper describes the acceleration tests performed at the Catania LNS Laboratory on a 3GHz linac module of the side coupled type, which boosts the proton energy of a beam extracted from a cyclotron from 62 to 72MeV. The output proton energy was measured with two devices: a NaI(Tl) crystal and a bending magnet. The experimental spectra are in good agreement with the calculated ones. From their shape it is obtained that (18±3.0)% of the transmitted protons fall in a ±2MeV interval centered around 72MeV. This result is in good agreement with the 20% value derived from the simulation of the acceleration process. The measured energy of the accelerated protons was used to check that the shunt impedance of the structure is equal to the computed one within 3%. This was the first time that a 3GHz structure has been used to accelerate protons, and the results of the tests have demonstrated that a high frequency linac can be used as a cyclotron booster. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Laser-matter interaction at relativistic intensities opens up new research fields in the particle acceleration and related secondary sources, with immediate applications in medical diagnostics, biophysics, material science, inertial confinement fusion, up to laboratory astrophysics. In particular laser-driven ion acceleration is very promising for hadron therapy once the ion energy will attain a few hundred MeV. The limited value of the energy up to now obtained for the accelerated ions is the drawback of such innovative technique to the real applications. LILIA (laser induced light ions acceleration) is an experiment now running at LNF (Frascati) with the goal of producing a real proton beam able to be driven for significant distances (50–75cm) away from the interaction point and which will act as a source for further accelerating structure. In this paper the description of the experimental setup, the preliminary results of solid target irradiation and start to end simulation for a post-accelerated beam up to 60MeV are given. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A new facility named SPARC_LAB has been recently launched at the INFN National Laboratories in Frascati, merging the potentialities of the former projects SPARC and PLASMONX. We describe in this paper the status and the future perspectives at the SPARC_LAB facility. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A facility in which a 62 MeV proton beam is employed in the radiotherapeutic treatment of several ocular disease has been active since March 2002 at Laboratori Nazionali del Sud. A fast and accurate quality control system of such beam has been designed and tested. The system consists of a scintillating screen mounted perpendicularly to the beam axis at a fixed distance and observed by a highly sensitive charge-coupled device camera. The basic idea is the possibility to obtain real time information about the relative spatial dose distribution delivered to tissue through the measurement of the light emission in the scintillating screen. A comparison with the presently used dosimetric system (a motorized silicon diode) that, in the future, will be replaced by the device introduced in this paper (if its experimental performance will be successful) has been carried out. The good capabilities of the system make it worthy of further investigations into its applicability in proton beams monitoring for radiotherapeutic treatments (i.e., reconstruction of depth dose distribution and beam monitoring during patient irradiation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIBO is a proton accelerator that operates at 3 GHz, the same frequency as the one adopted in the about 7500 electron linacs used for radiotherapy all over the world. Such a high frequency was chosen to obtain a large gradient (on average more than 10 MV/m), and thus a short linac (about 15 m) to boost the energy of the protons, extracted at about 60 MeV from a cyclotron, up to the 200 MeV needed for the treatment of deep-seated tumours.This paper describes the design study of the full 3 GHz Side Coupled Linac (modular structure, nine modules) and the construction and tests of the LIBO prototype (first module), which was built to accelerate protons from 62 to 74 MeV with an RF peak power of 4.4 MW. The items discussed are the beam dynamics parameters of the module (longitudinal and transverse acceptances), the constructional elements and procedures, the accuracies of the various mechanical elements, the cooling system, the RF tuning, the RF measurement and the RF power tests. These tests showed that, after a short conditioning time, the gradient in each of the four tanks of the module could reach 28.5 MV/m, much larger than the nominal project value (15.8 MV/m). The last section of the paper describes the successful acceleration tests performed at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud of INFN in Catania with a solid-state 3 GHz modulator lent by IBA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]