Laser generation of proton beams for the production of short-lived positron emitting radioisotopes

I. Spencer, K.W.D. Ledingham*, R.P. Singhal, T. McCanny, P. McKenna, E.L. Clark, K. Krushelnick, M. Zepf, F.N. Beg, M. Tatarakis, A.E. Dangor, P.A. Norreys, R.J. Clarke, R.M. Allott, I.N. Ross

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

186 Citations (Scopus)

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)449-458
Number of pages10
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Volume183
Issue number3-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2001

Keywords

  • laser
  • nuclear
  • plasma
  • positron
  • proton

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