Abstract
Protons of energies up to 37 MeV have been generated when ultra-intense lasers (up to 1020Wcm-2) interact with hydrogen containing solid targets. These protons can be used to induce nuclear reactions in secondary targets to produce β+-emitting nuclei of relevance to the nuclear medicine community, namely 11C and 13N via (p,n) and (p,α) reactions. Activities of the order of 200 kBq have been measured from a single laser pulse interacting with a thin solid target. The possibility of using ultra-intense lasers to produce commercial amounts of short-lived positron emitting sources for positron emission tomography (PET) is discussed.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 449-458 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms |
Volume | 183 |
Issue number | 3-4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 Oct 2001 |
Keywords
- laser
- nuclear
- plasma
- positron
- proton