Matter and Radiation at Extremes (May 2024)
Radioisotope production using lasers: From basic science to applications
- M. R. D. Rodrigues,
- A. Bonasera,
- M. Scisciò,
- J. A. Pérez-Hernández,
- M. Ehret,
- F. Filippi,
- P. L. Andreoli,
- M. Huault,
- H. Larreur,
- D. Singappuli,
- D. Molloy,
- D. Raffestin,
- M. Alonzo,
- G. G. Rapisarda,
- D. Lattuada,
- G. L. Guardo,
- C. Verona,
- Fe. Consoli,
- G. Petringa,
- A. McNamee,
- M. La Cognata,
- S. Palmerini,
- T. Carriere,
- M. Cipriani,
- G. Di Giorgio,
- G. Cristofari,
- R. De Angelis,
- G. A. P. Cirrone,
- D. Margarone,
- L. Giuffrida,
- D. Batani,
- P. Nicolai,
- K. Batani,
- R. Lera,
- L. Volpe,
- D. Giulietti,
- S. Agarwal,
- M. Krupka,
- S. Singh,
- Fa. Consoli
Affiliations
- M. R. D. Rodrigues
- Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77840, USA
- A. Bonasera
- Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77840, USA
- M. Scisciò
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- J. A. Pérez-Hernández
- Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU), Villamayor, Spain
- M. Ehret
- Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU), Villamayor, Spain
- F. Filippi
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- P. L. Andreoli
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- M. Huault
- Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
- H. Larreur
- Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
- D. Singappuli
- Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications (CELIA), Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, Talence, France
- D. Molloy
- HB11 Energy Holdings Pty, Freshwater, New South Wales, Australia
- D. Raffestin
- Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications (CELIA), Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, Talence, France
- M. Alonzo
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- G. G. Rapisarda
- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy
- D. Lattuada
- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy
- G. L. Guardo
- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy
- C. Verona
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata,” Roma, Italy
- Fe. Consoli
- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy
- G. Petringa
- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy
- A. McNamee
- School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
- M. La Cognata
- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy
- S. Palmerini
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
- T. Carriere
- Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications (CELIA), Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, Talence, France
- M. Cipriani
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- G. Di Giorgio
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- G. Cristofari
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- R. De Angelis
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- G. A. P. Cirrone
- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy
- D. Margarone
- School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
- L. Giuffrida
- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (LNS-INFN), Catania, Italy
- D. Batani
- Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications (CELIA), Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, Talence, France
- P. Nicolai
- Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications (CELIA), Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, Talence, France
- K. Batani
- Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion (IPPLM), Warsaw, Poland
- R. Lera
- Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU), Villamayor, Spain
- L. Volpe
- Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU), Villamayor, Spain
- D. Giulietti
- Dipartimento Fisica, “E. Fermi,” Università di Pisa and INFN, Pisa, Italy
- S. Agarwal
- FZU–Institute of Physics of Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- M. Krupka
- FZU–Institute of Physics of Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- S. Singh
- FZU–Institute of Physics of Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- Fa. Consoli
- ENEA, Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security Department-C, Frascati, Italy
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0196909
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 9,
no. 3
pp. 037203 – 037203-14
Abstract
The discovery of chirped pulse amplification has led to great improvements in laser technology, enabling energetic laser beams to be compressed to pulse durations of tens of femtoseconds and focused to a few micrometers. Protons with energies of tens of MeV can be accelerated using, for instance, target normal sheath acceleration and focused on secondary targets. Under such conditions, nuclear reactions can occur, with the production of radioisotopes suitable for medical application. The use of high-repetition lasers to produce such isotopes is competitive with conventional methods mostly based on accelerators. In this paper, we study the production of 67Cu, 63Zn, 18F, and 11C, which are currently used in positron emission tomography and other applications. At the same time, we study the reactions 10B(p,α)7Be and 70Zn(p,4n)67Ga to put further constraints on the proton distributions at different angles, as well as the reaction 11B(p,α)8Be relevant for energy production. The experiment was performed at the 1 PW laser facility at Vega III in Salamanca, Spain. Angular distributions of radioisotopes in the forward (with respect to the laser direction) and backward directions were measured using a high purity germanium detector. Our results are in reasonable agreement with numerical estimates obtained following the approach of Kimura and Bonasera [Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 637, 164–170 (2011)].
