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HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

HELPMI is a 2-year project, subsidized by the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration, conducted by GSI, HI Jena and HZDR (lead). The aim is to start the development of a F.A.I.R. data standard for experimental data of the entire laser-plasma (LPA) community. Such standard does not yet exist. It will facilitate management and analysis of usually quite heterogeneous experimental data and logs by rich and machine-actionable metadata, allowing automated processing of broad and long data sets. To date, the LPA community is widely using openPMD, an open meta-standard, well-established for simulations. NeXus is a similarly hierarchical and extensible standard for various experimental methods of the Photon and Neutron science community. Within HELPMI, we plan to adopt NeXus for LPA experimental data and simultaneously to make openPMD and its API extensible for custom hierarchies like NeXus. Thereby we can achieve interoperability of the standards, circumventing the need for another standard. Alongside we will start developing a glossary of LPA experimental terms in order to achieve re-usability. The glossary shall be community-driven and technically open, extensible and implementation-independent.

HELPMI is a 2-year project, subsidized by the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration, conducted by GSI, HI Jena and HZDR (lead). The aim is to start the development of a F.A.I.R. data standard for experimental data of the entire laser-plasma (LPA) community. Such standard does not yet exist. It will facilitate management and analysis of usually quite heterogeneous experimental data and logs by rich and machine-actionable metadata, allowing automated processing of broad and long data sets. To date, the LPA community is widely using openPMD, an open meta-standard, well-established for simulations. NeXus is a similarly hierarchical and extensible standard for various experimental methods of the Photon and Neutron science community. Within HELPMI, we plan to adopt NeXus for LPA experimental data and simultaneously to make openPMD and its API extensible for custom hierarchies like NeXus. Thereby we can achieve interoperability of the standards, circumventing the need for another standard. Alongside we will start developing a glossary of LPA experimental terms in order to achieve re-usability. The glossary shall be community-driven and technically open, extensible and implementation-independent.

Plasma wakefield accelerators can be driven either by intense laser pulses (LWFA) or by intense particle beams (PWFA). A third approach that combines the complementary advantages of both types of plasma wakefield accelerator has been established with increasing success over the last decade and is called hybrid LWFA→PWFA. Essentially, a compact LWFA is exploited to produce an energetic, high-current electron beam as a driver for a subsequent PWFA stage, which, in turn, is exploited for phase-constant, inherently laser-synchronized, quasi-static acceleration over extended acceleration lengths. The sum is greater than its parts: the approach not only provides a compact, cost-effective alternative to linac-driven PWFA for exploitation of PWFA and its advantages for acceleration and high-brightness beam generation, but extends the parameter range accessible for PWFA and, through the added benefit of co-location of inherently synchronized laser pulses, enables high-precision pump/probing, injection, seeding and unique experimental constellations, e.g., for beam coordination and collision experiments. We report on the accelerating progress of the approach achieved in a series of collaborative experiments and discuss future prospects and potential impact.

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

In our HELIPORT workshop, we provided insights into our project and share our results. In addition, we would like to provide a platform for the presentation of similar projects, as well as extensions or integrations from the surrounding research areas. The overall goal of the workshop is bringing together different institutions with similar challenges and establishing a community around our HELIPORT project. We therefore encouraged our community to submit an abstract for a talk or poster. The submissions are dedicated to four thematic points: • HELIPORTuse-cases, • Scientificprojectandmetadatamanagement, • Experiment-specificandoverallmetadataand • Scientificworkflows. HELIPORT (Helmholtz ScIentific Project WORkflow PlaTform) itself is a project funded by the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration, and runs from July 2021 until June 2023. HELIPORT aims to make the entire life cycle of a scientific project findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. In particular, our data management solution deals with the areas from the generation of the data to the publication of primary research data, the workflows carried out and the actual research results. For this purpose, a concept was developed which shows the various essential components and their connections.

We present CAFA-evaluator, a powerful Python program designed to evaluate the performance of prediction methods on targets with hierarchical concept dependencies. It generalizes multi-label evaluation to modern ontologies where the prediction targets are drawn from a directed acyclic graph and achieves high efficiency by leveraging matrix computation and topological sorting. The program requirements include a small number of standard Python libraries, making CAFA-evaluator easy to maintain. The code replicates the Critical Assessment of protein Function Annotation (CAFA) benchmarking, which evaluates predictions of the consistent subgraphs in Gene Ontology. Owing to its reliability and accuracy, the organizers have selected CAFA-evaluator as the official CAFA evaluation software., Comment: 5 pages

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

HELIPORT is a data management solution that aims at making the components and steps of the entire research experiment’s life cycle discoverable, accessible, interoperable and reusable according to the FAIR principles. Among other information, HELIPORT integrates documentation, scientific workflows, and the final publication of the research results - all via already established solutions for proposal management, electronic lab notebooks, software development and devops tools, and other additional data sources. The integration is accomplished by presenting the researchers with a high-level overview to keep all aspects of the experiment in mind, and automatically exchanging relevant metadata between the experiment’s life cycle steps. Computational agents can interact with HELIPORT via a REST API that allows access to all components, and landing pages that allow for export of digital objects in various standardized formats and schemas. An overall digital object graph combining the metadata harvested from all sources provides scientists with a visual representation of interactions and relations between their digital objects, as well as their existence in the first place. Through the integrated computational workflow systems, HELIPORT can automate calculations using the collected metadata. By visualizing all aspects of large-scale research experiments, HELIPORT enables deeper insights into a comprehensible data provenance with the chance of raising awareness for data management.

The HELIPORT project aims at developing a platform which accommodates the complete life cycle of a scientific project and links all corresponding programs, systems and workflows to create a more FAIR and comprehensible project description.

The HELIPORT project aims at developing a platform which accommodates the complete life cycle of a scientific project and links all corresponding programs, systems and workflows to create a more FAIR and comprehensible project description.

We performed simulations for CPA stretcher compressor systems with measured aberrated optic surfaces. These simulations were developed to understand and further optimize the temporal pulse structure of laser pulses which were stretched and compressed with existing and planned stretcher compressor systems.

We present a deep imitation learning framework for robotic bimanual manipulation in a continuous state-action space. A core challenge is to generalize the manipulation skills to objects in different locations. We hypothesize that modeling the relational information in the environment can significantly improve generalization. To achieve this, we propose to (i) decompose the multi-modal dynamics into elemental movement primitives, (ii) parameterize each primitive using a recurrent graph neural network to capture interactions, and (iii) integrate a high-level planner that composes primitives sequentially and a low-level controller to combine primitive dynamics and inverse kinematics control. Our model is a deep, hierarchical, modular architecture. Compared to baselines, our model generalizes better and achieves higher success rates on several simulated bimanual robotic manipulation tasks. We open source the code for simulation, data, and models at: https://github.com/Rose-STL-Lab/HDR-IL.

The spatial distribution of protons accelerated from submicron-thick plastic foil targets using multi-terawatt, frequency-doubled laser pulses with ultra-high temporal contrast has been investigated experimentally. A very stable, ring-like beam profile of the accelerated protons, oriented around the target's normal direction has been observed. The ring's opening angle has been found to decrease with increasing foil thicknesses. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reproduce our results indicating that the ring is formed during the expansion of the proton density distribution into the vacuum as described by the mechanism of target-normal sheath acceleration. Here - in addition to the longitudinal electric fields responsible for the forward acceleration of the protons - a lateral charge separation leads to transverse field components accelerating the protons in the lateral direction.

We present experimental evidence of ultra-high energy density plasma states with the keV bulk electron temperatures and near-solid electron densities generated during the interaction of high contrast, relativistically intense laser pulses with planar metallic foils. The bulk electron temperature and density have been measured using x-ray spectroscopy tools; the temperature of supra-thermal electrons traversing the target was determined from measured bremsstrahlung spectra; run-away electrons were detected using magnet spectrometers. The measured electron energy distribution was in a good agreement with results of Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. Analysis of the bremsstrahlung spectra and results on measurements of the run-away electrons showed a suppression of the hot electrons production in the case of the high laser contrast. By application of Ti-foils covered with nm-thin Fe-layers we demonstrated that the thickness of the created keV hot dense plasma does not exceed 150 nm. Results of the pilot hydro-dynamic simulations that are based on a wide-range two-temperature EOS, wide-range description of all transport and optical properties, ionization, electron and radiative heating, plasma expansion, and Maxwell equations (with a wide-range permittivity) for description of the laser absorption are in excellent agreement with experimental results. According to these simulations, the generation of keV-hot bulk electrons is caused by the collisional mechanism of the laser pulse absorption in plasmas with a near solid step-like electron density profile. The laser energy firstly deposited into the nm-thin skin-layer is then transported into the target depth by the electron heat conductivity. This scenario is opposite to the volumetric character of the energy deposition produced by supra-thermal electrons., Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures

The detailed temporal evolution of the laser-wakefield acceleration process with controlled injection, producing reproducible high-quality electron bunches, has been investigated. The localized injection of electrons into the wakefield has been realized in a simple way-called shock-front injection-utilizing a sharp drop in plasma density. Both experimental and numerical results reveal the electron injection and acceleration process as well as the electron bunch's temporal properties. The possibility to visualize the plasma wave gives invaluable spatially resolved information about the local background electron density, which in turn allows for an efficient suppression of electron self-injection before the controlled process of injection at the sharp density jump. Upper limits for the electron bunch duration of 6.6 fs FWHM, or 2.8 fs (r. m. s.) were found. These results indicate that shock-front injection not only provides stable and tunable, but also few-femtosecond short electron pulses for applications such as ultrashort radiation sources, time-resolved electron diffraction or for the seeding of further acceleration stages. Published by AIP Publishing.

The Horizon 2020 Project EuPRAXIA ("European Plasma Research Accelerator with eXcellence In Applications") is preparing a conceptual design report of a highly compact and cost-effective European facility with multi-GeV electron beams using plasma as the acceleration medium. The accelerator facility will be based on a laser and/or a beam driven plasma acceleration approach and will be used for photon science, high-energy physics (HEP) detector tests, and other applications such as compact X-ray sources for medical imaging or material processing. EuPRAXIA started in November 2015 and will deliver the design report in October 2019. EuPRAXIA aims to be included on the ESFRI roadmap in 2020.

The Horizon 2020 Project EuPRAXIA ("European Plasma Research Accelerator with eXcellence In Applications") is preparing a conceptual design report of a highly compact and cost-effective European facility with multi-GeV electron beams using plasma as the acceleration medium. The accelerator facility will be based on a laser and/or a beam driven plasma acceleration approach and will be used for photon science, high-energy physics (HEP) detector tests, and other applications such as compact X-ray sources for medical imaging or material processing. EuPRAXIA started in November 2015 and will deliver the design report in October 2019. EuPRAXIA aims to be included on the ESFRI roadmap in 2020.

ELI-NP facility will enable for the first time the use of two 10 PW laser beams for quantum electrodynamics (QED) experiments. The first beam will accelerate electrons to relativistic energies. The second beam will subject relativistic electrons to the strong electromagnetic field generating QED processes: intense gamma ray radiation and electron-positron pair formation. The laser beams will be focused to intensities above 10(21) Wcm(-2) and reaching 10(22)-10(23) Wcm(-2) for the first time. We propose to use this capability to investigate new physical phenomena at the interfaces of plasma, nuclear and particle physics at ELI-NP. This High Power Laser System Technical Design Report (HPLS-TDR2) presents the experimental area E6 at ELI-NP for investigating high field physics and quantum electrodynamics and the production of electron-positron-pairs and of energetic gamma-rays. The scientific community submitted 12 commissioning runs for E6 interaction chamber with two 10 PW laser beams and one proposal for the CETAL interaction chamber with 1 PW laser. The proposals are representative of the international high field physics community being written by 48 authors from 14 European and US organizations. The proposals are classified according to the science area investigated into: Radiation Reaction Physics: Classical and Quantum; Compton and Thomson Scattering Physics: Linear and Non Linear Regimes; QED in Vacuum; Atoms in Extreme Fields. Two pump-probe colliding 10 PW laser beams are proposed for the E6 interaction chamber. The focused pump laser beam accelerates the electrons to relativistic energies. The accelerated electron bunches interact with the very high electro-magnetic field of the focused probe laser beam. We propose two main types of experiments with: (a) gas targets in which the pump laser-beam is focused by a long focal length mirror and drives a wakefield in which the electron bunch is accelerated to multi-GeV energies and then exposed to the EM field of th

ELI-NP facility will enable for the first time the use of two 10 PW laser beams for quantum electrodynamics (QED) experiments. The first beam will accelerate electrons to relativistic energies. The second beam will subject relativistic electrons to the strong electromagnetic field generating QED processes: intense gamma ray radiation and electron-positron pair formation. The laser beams will be focused to intensities above 10(21) Wcm(-2) and reaching 10(22)-10(23) Wcm(-2) for the first time. We propose to use this capability to investigate new physical phenomena at the interfaces of plasma, nuclear and particle physics at ELI-NP. This High Power Laser System Technical Design Report (HPLS-TDR2) presents the experimental area E6 at ELI-NP for investigating high field physics and quantum electrodynamics and the production of electron-positron-pairs and of energetic gamma-rays. The scientific community submitted 12 commissioning runs for E6 interaction chamber with two 10 PW laser beams and one proposal for the CETAL interaction chamber with 1 PW laser. The proposals are representative of the international high field physics community being written by 48 authors from 14 European and US organizations. The proposals are classified according to the science area investigated into: Radiation Reaction Physics: Classical and Quantum; Compton and Thomson Scattering Physics: Linear and Non Linear Regimes; QED in Vacuum; Atoms in Extreme Fields. Two pump-probe colliding 10 PW laser beams are proposed for the E6 interaction chamber. The focused pump laser beam accelerates the electrons to relativistic energies. The accelerated electron bunches interact with the very high electro-magnetic field of the focused probe laser beam. We propose two main types of experiments with: (a) gas targets in which the pump laser-beam is focused by a long focal length mirror and drives a wakefield in which the electron bunch is accelerated to multi-GeV energies and then exposed to the EM field of th

The long-term aim of developing laser based particle acceleration towards clinical application requires not only substantial technological progress, but also new technical solutions for dose delivery and quality assurance as well as comprehensive research on the radiobiological consequences of ultra-short radiation pulses with high pulse dose. During the last years the laser driven technology was developed at such a rate that cell samples and small animals can be irradiated. Within the joint research project “onCOOPtics” extensive in vitro studies with several human tumor and normal tissue cells were already performed revealing comparable radiobiological effects of laser driven and conventional electron and proton beams1,2. Using the same cell lines, these results were substantiated comparing the radiobiological response to ultra-short pulsed electron bunches (pulse dose rates of ≤1012 Gy/min) and continuous electron delivery at the radiation source ELBE3. In a second translational step, in vivo experiments were established. Although the experiments were motivated by future proton trials, first attempts were performed with electrons at the laser system JETI4, since the delivery of prescribed homogeneous doses to a 3D target volume is easier for electrons than for protons. A full scale animal experiment was realized for the HNSCC FaDu grown on nude mice ear. The radiation induced tumor growth delay was determined and compared to those obtained after similar treatment at a conventional clinical LINAC. Again, no significant difference in the radiation response to both radiation qualities was revealed, whereas the successful performance of such a comprehensive experiment campaign underlines the stability and reproducibility of all implemented methods and setup components5. During this experiment campaign the changing tumour take rate and a high rate of secondary tumours were identified as limitations of the model that have to be improved before proton experiments and tu

The long-term aim of developing laser based particle acceleration towards clinical application requires not only substantial technological progress, but also new technical solutions for dose delivery and quality assurance as well as comprehensive research on the radiobiological consequences of ultra-short radiation pulses with high pulse dose. During the last years the laser driven technology was developed at such a rate that cell samples and small animals can be irradiated. Within the joint research project “onCOOPtics” extensive in vitro studies with several human tumor and normal tissue cells were already performed revealing comparable radiobiological effects of laser driven and conventional electron and proton beams1,2. Using the same cell lines, these results were substantiated comparing the radiobiological response to ultra-short pulsed electron bunches (pulse dose rates of ≤1012 Gy/min) and continuous electron delivery at the radiation source ELBE3. In a second translational step, in vivo experiments were established. Although the experiments were motivated by future proton trials, first attempts were performed with electrons at the laser system JETI4, since the delivery of prescribed homogeneous doses to a 3D target volume is easier for electrons than for protons. A full scale animal experiment was realized for the HNSCC FaDu grown on nude mice ear. The radiation induced tumor growth delay was determined and compared to those obtained after similar treatment at a conventional clinical LINAC. Again, no significant difference in the radiation response to both radiation qualities was revealed, whereas the successful performance of such a comprehensive experiment campaign underlines the stability and reproducibility of all implemented methods and setup components5. During this experiment campaign the changing tumour take rate and a high rate of secondary tumours were identified as limitations of the model that have to be improved before proton experiments and tu

Copper activation was used to characterize high-energy proton beam acceleration from near-critical density plasma targets. An enhancement was observed when decreasing the target density, which is indicative for an increased laser-accelerated hot electron density at the rear target-vacuum boundary. This is due to channel formation and collimation of the hot electrons inside the target. Particle-in-cell simulations support the experimental observations and show the correlation between channel depth and longitudinal electric field strength is directly correlated with the proton acceleration.

The novel technology of particle acceleration by high intensity lasers promises more compact and cost effective ion sources as well as electron beams of very high energy for radiotherapeutic application. However, compared to conventional beams, laser-driven acceleration results in different beam properties like ultra-short and very intensive pulses, inherent pulse-to-pulse fluctuations, low pulse repetition rate, large beam divergence and broad energy distribution. In consequence, the future medical application of these particle beams requires not only a high power laser system but also new technical solutions for dose delivery and quality assurance as well as comprehensive research on the radiobiological consequences of ultra-short radiation pulses with high pulse dose. During the last years the laser-driven technology was developed at such a rate that cell samples and small animals can be irradiated. Within the joint research project “onCOOPtics” extensive in vitro dose response studies were already performed comparing the radiobiological effects of laser driven electron and proton beams to their conventional equivalents. As overall result, the obtained dose-effect relationships for human tumor and human normal tissue cells reveal no difference between conventional and laser-driven beams. In a second translational step, in vivo experiments were recently established at the laser system JETI. Although the experiments were motivated by future proton trials, first attempts were performed with laser accelerated electrons, since the homogeneous delivery of prescribed doses to a 3D target volume is easier for electrons than for protons. Tumor irradiation was realized for the murine sarcoma KHT and the human squamous cell carcinoma FaDu grown on nude mice ear. Doses of up to 14 Gy were applied and the radiation induced tumor growth delay was investigated and later on compared to those obtained after similar treatment at a conventional electron Linac. Moreover, the success

The long-term goal to integrate laser-based particle accelerators into radiotherapy clinics not only requires technological development of high-intensity lasers and new techniques for beam detection and dose delivery, but also characterization of the biological consequences of this new particle beam quality, i.e. ultra-short, ultra-intense pulses. In the present work, we describe successful in vivo experiments with laser-driven electron pulses by utilization of a small tumour model on the mouse ear for the human squamous cell carcinoma model FaDu. The already established in vitro irradiation technology at the laser system JETI was further enhanced for 3D tumour irradiation in vivo in terms of beam transport, beam monitoring, dose delivery and dosimetry in order to precisely apply a prescribed dose to each tumour in full-scale radiobiological experiments. Tumour growth delay was determined after irradiation with doses of 3 and 6 Gy by laser-accelerated electrons. Reference irradiation was performed with continuous electron beams at a clinical linear accelerator in order to both validate the dedicated dosimetry employed for laser-accelerated JETI electrons and above all review the biological results. No significant difference in radiation-induced tumour growth delay was revealed for the two investigated electron beams. These data provide evidence that the ultra-high dose rate generated by laser acceleration does not impact the biological effectiveness of the particles.

The novel technology of particle acceleration by high intensity lasers promises more compact and cost effective ion sources as well as electron beams of very high energy for radiotherapeutic application. However, compared to conventional beams, laser-driven acceleration results in different beam properties like ultra-short and very intensive pulses, inherent pulse-to-pulse fluctuations, low pulse repetition rate, large beam divergence and broad energy distribution. In consequence, the future medical application of these particle beams requires not only a high power laser system but also new technical solutions for dose delivery and quality assurance as well as comprehensive research on the radiobiological consequences of ultra-short radiation pulses with high pulse dose. During the last years the laser-driven technology was developed at such a rate that cell samples and small animals can be irradiated. Within the joint research project “onCOOPtics” extensive in vitro dose response studies were already performed comparing the radiobiological effects of laser driven electron and proton beams to their conventional equivalents. As overall result, the obtained dose-effect relationships for human tumor and human normal tissue cells reveal no difference between conventional and laser-driven beams. In a second translational step, in vivo experiments were recently established at the laser system JETI. Although the experiments were motivated by future proton trials, first attempts were performed with laser accelerated electrons, since the homogeneous delivery of prescribed doses to a 3D target volume is easier for electrons than for protons. Tumor irradiation was realized for the murine sarcoma KHT and the human squamous cell carcinoma FaDu grown on nude mice ear. Doses of up to 14 Gy were applied and the radiation induced tumor growth delay was investigated and later on compared to those obtained after similar treatment at a conventional electron Linac. Moreover, the success

Presentation about laser-proton acceleration at HZDR with 100 TW Laser, cell irradiation experiments, study on filamented proton beam profiles and reduced mass targets.

The novel technology of particle acceleration by high intensity lasers promises more compact and cost effective ion sources as well as electron beams of very high energy for radiotherapeutic application. However, compared to conventional beams, laser-driven acceleration results in different beam properties like ultra-short and very intensive pulses, inherent pulse-to-pulse fluctuations, low pulse repetition rate, large beam divergence and broad energy distribution. In consequence, the future medical application of these particle beams requires not only a high power laser system but also new technical solutions for dose delivery and quality assurance as well as comprehensive research on the radiobiological consequences of ultra-short radiation pulses with high pulse dose. During the last years the laser-driven technology was developed at such a rate that cell samples and small animals can be irradiated. Within the joint research project “onCOOPtics” extensive in vitro dose response studies were already performed comparing the radiobiological effects of laser driven electron and proton beams to their conventional equivalents. As overall result, the obtained dose-effect relationships for human tumor and human normal tissue cells reveal no difference between conventional and laser-driven beams. In a second translational step, in vivo experiments were recently established at the laser system JETI. Although the experiments were motivated by future proton trials, first attempts were performed with laser accelerated electrons, since the homogeneous delivery of prescribed doses to a 3D target volume is easier for electrons than for protons. Tumor irradiation was realized for the murine sarcoma KHT and the human squamous cell carcinoma FaDu grown on nude mice ear. Doses of up to 14 Gy were applied and the radiation induced tumor growth delay was investigated and later on compared to those obtained after similar treatment at a conventional electron Linac. Moreover, the success

We present measurements of the absorption and emission cross-sections for Yb:YAG, Yb:LuAG and Yb:CaF2 as a function of temperature between 80 K and 340 K. The cross-sections are determined by the combination of the McCumber relation and the Fuchtbauer - Ladenburg equation to achieve reliable results in spectral regions of high and low absorption. The experimental setup used for the fluorescence measurements minimizes re-absorption effects due to the measurement from small sample volume, providing nearly undisturbed raw data for the Fuchtbauer - Ladenburg approach. The retrieved cross-sections together with the spectral characteristics of the tested materials provide important information for the design of energy efficient, high-power laser amplifiers.

We report the amplification of laser pulses at a center wavelength of 1034 nm to an energy of 16.6 J from a fully diode pumped amplifier using Yb:CaF2 as the active medium. Pumped by a total optical power of 300 kW from high-power laser diodes, a gain factor of g = 6.1 was achieved in a nine-pass amplifier configuration agreeing with numerical simulations. A measured spectral bandwidth of 10 nm full width at half maximum, FWHM promises a bandwidth-limited compression of the pulses down to a duration of 150 fs. These are to our knowledge the most energetic laser pulses achieved from a diode pumped chirped pulse amplifier so far.

Laser-accelerated electron pulses have been used to irradiate human tumors grown on mice’s ears during radiobiological experiments. These experiments have been carried out with the JETI laser system at the Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics in Jena, Germany. To treat a total of more than 50 mice, a stable and reliable operation of the laser-electron accelerator with a dose rate exceeding 1 Gy/min was necessary. To achieve this, a sufficient number of electrons at energies in excess of 5 MeV had to be generated. The irradiation time for a single mouse was a few minutes. Furthermore, the particle pulses’ parameters needed to remain achievable for a time period of several weeks. Due to the online detection of the radiation dose, the unavoidable shot-to-shot fluctuations, currently still typical for laser-based particle accelerators, could be compensated. The results demonstrate that particle pulses generated with laser-based accelerators have the potential to be a future alternative for conventional particle accelerators used for the irradiation of tumors.

In this paper the development and implementation of a novel amplifier setup as an additional stage for the CPA pump laser of the Petawatt Field Synthesizer, currently developed at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, is resented. This amplifier design comprises 20 relay-imaged passes through the active medium which are arranged in rotational symmetry. As the gain material, an in-house-developed Yb:YAG active-mirror is used. With this setup, stretched 4 ns seed pulses are amplified to output energies exceeding 1 J with repetition rates of up to 2 Hz. Furthermore, a spectral bandwidth of 3.5nm (FWHM) is maintained during amplification and the compression of the pulses down to their Fourier-limit of 740 fs is achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of 1TW pulses generated via CPA in diode-pumped Yb:YAG.

The generation of intense ion beams from high-intensity laser-generated plasmas has been the focus of research for the last decade. In the LIGHT collaboration the expertise of heavy ion accelerator scientists and laser and plasma physicists has been combined to investigate the prospect of merging these ion beams with conventional accelerator technology and exploring the possibilities of future applications. We report about the goals and first results of the LIGHT collaboration to generate, handle and transport laser driven ion beams. This effort constitutes an important step in research for next generation accelerator technologies.