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 |
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the engineering and target area staff of the Central Laser Facility of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. This work was supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. I. Spencer would like to thank EPSRC for receipt of a research studentship. It is a pleasure to acknowledge discussions and preliminary measurements of hydrocarbon layers on metal surfaces with Prof. J. Vickerman and Dr. N. Lockyer, Department of Chemistry, UMIST.
Keywords
- laser
- nuclear
- plasma
- positron
- proton