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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Advanced Accelerator Technology (Final Report)

Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) acceleration, together with high precision RF field control and high precision beam instrumentation and control, is a key technology for future next generation accelerators. In the past 10 years, significant progress on these technologies has been made jointly at KEK and US laboratories. The research progress summarized here is Cornell University’s contribution to a continued US-Japan collaborative accelerator research effort. The combined objectives of this collaboration were to solve critical technical issues related to SRF acceleration technology, related to low emittance beam generation, and related to reducing the vertical beam size of the ATF2 final focus beam line. These joint efforts significantly advance current accelerator technologies. The specific objective of the Cornell University part of this collaboration was to develop, in close connection with KEK and FNAL, new SRF cavity Nb3Sn thin-film coating technologies for transformational cavity performance. Cornell is a world leader in the synthesis of Nb3Sn for SRF application, and has produced the first-ever next-generation non-niobium (i.e., Nb 3 Sn) prototype SRF accelerator cavities with cryogenic efficiency exceeding that of traditional niobium cavities. These next-generation Nb 3 Sn SRF cavities strongly reduce AC power consumption of SRF based accelerators, and also enable using greatly simplified cryogenic cooling infrastructure, thereby making SRF technology available to a much wider range of accelerator applications. During this project, Cornell has designed and started fabrication of a new Nb 3 Sn coating setup, which will be large enough to coat full-scale (i.e., multi-cell) SRF accelerator cavities. In addition, Cornell University has participated in other collaborative activities at KEK and partner US laboratories.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design Philosophy for Accelerator Control Rooms

This report describes the foundational human factors principles needed to design user interfaces for accelerator control rooms. These principles are presented as recommendations for accelerator control system interface design and are illustrated with examples drawn from accelerator operations at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). These high-level principles are intended to serve as design objectives that apply generally across all control system interfaces developed for the accelerator complex. This design philosophy document is a high-level roadmap to approach the general interface design for the accelerator complex. This philosophy applies state-of-the-art human factors principles and evidence-based design standards to an accelerator environment, which will transform the next era of accelerator interfaces as outlined by the Accelerator Controls Operations Research Network (ACORN) Project. Further work will include mapping the general design principles included in this report to more specific guidance in the form of a user interface style guide.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Theoretical Approach Of The Reduction Of Chromatic And Spherical Aberrations In An Acceleration Lens System For Hundreds Of keV Gaseous Ion Nanobeam

The focused gaseous ion beam (gas-FIB) system composed of a series of electrostatic lenses, called ''acceleration lens system'', has been developed to form nanobeams using gaseous ions generated from a plasma ion source. Ion beams are accelerated and focused simultaneously by a pair of electrodes. A new all-in-one compact acceleration system including an acceleration tube is now under development to form 300 keV ion nanobeam. Chromatic and spherical aberrations are, however, hindrance to form nanobeams with their smaller sizes in diameter. A deceleration lens, which performs like a defocusing lens, was theoretically introduced to downstream of the present acceleration lens system to reduce the aberrations. Ion beam optics simulations were carried out to show that this aberration reduction technique is effective to reduce chromatic and spherical aberrations. As a result, we reduced the chromatic aberration coefficient by 26%, the spherical aberration coefficient by 17% and a beam diameter by 17%, with the deceleration energy of 15 keV. In case of using an electrostatic acceleration tube with 100 mm length, the final beam diameter of 103 nm at 300 keV is obtained by the all-in-one acceleration lens system with the total acceleration length of only 650 mm.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

The Tandem-ALPI-PIAVE accelerator complex of LNL

Heavy ion beams are delivered at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro by the accelerator complex Tandem-ALPI-PIAVE. The Tandem XTU is a Van de Graaff accelerator normally operated at terminal voltages of up to about 15 MV. The Tandem accelerator can be operated in stand-alone mode or as an injector for the linac booster ALPI. The linear accelerator ALPI is built of superconducting resonant cavities and consists of a low-beta branch, particularly important for the acceleration of the heavier mass ions, a medium-beta branch, and a high-beta branch. ALPI can be operated also with the PIAVE injector that consists of a superconducting linac and an ECR source. The PIAVE source was mainly used for the acceleration of intense noble gas beams but most recently also a first metallic beam was delivered to the users. The accelerator complex delivers beams of ions from protons to gold in three experimental areas on 11 different beam lines. A rich scientific activity is ongoing at the Tandem-ALPI-PIAVE accelerator complex, beam time being shared between nuclear physics research and applied and interdisciplinary physics research. An overview of the present status and perspectives of the Tandem-ALPI-PIAVE complex and its physics program is given in the present paper.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Electron acceleration by parallel and perpendicular electric fields during magnetic reconnection without guide field

In this work, electron acceleration due to the electric field parallel to the background magnetic field during magnetic reconnection with no guide field is investigated by theory and two-dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations and compared with acceleration due to the electric field perpendicular to the magnetic field. The magnitude of the parallel electric potential shows dependence on the ratio of the plasma frequency to the electron cyclotron frequency as (ω pe /Ω e ) -2 and on the background plasma density as N$^{-½}_{b}$ . In the Earth's magnetotail, the parameter ω pe /Ω e ~9 and the background (lobe) density can be of the order of 0.01 cm -3 , and it is expected that the parallel electric potential is not large enough to accelerate electrons up to 100 keV. Therefore, we must consider the effect of the perpendicular electric field to account for electron energization in excess of 100 keV in the Earth's magnetotail. Trajectories for high-energy electrons are traced in a simulation to demonstrate that acceleration due to the perpendicular electric field in the diffusion region is the dominant acceleration mechanism, rather than acceleration due to the parallel electric fields in the exhaust regions. For energetic electrons accelerated near the X line due to the perpendicular electric field, pitch angle scattering converts the perpendicular momentum to the parallel momentum. On the other hand, for passing electrons that are mainly accelerated by the parallel electric field, pitch angle scattering converting the parallel momentum to the perpendicular momentum occurs. In this way, particle acceleration and pitch angle scattering will generate heated electrons in the exhaust regions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Transversely pumped laser driven particle accelerator

We present a novel acceleration scheme capable of accelerating electrons and ions in an underdense plasma. Transversely Pumped Acceleration (TPA) uses multiple arrays of counter-propagating laser beamlets that focus onto a central acceleration axis. Tuning the injection timing and the spacing between the adjacent beamlets allows for precise control over the position and velocity of the intersection point of the counter-propagating beam arrays. This results in an accelerating structure that propagates orthogonal to the direction of laser propagation. We present the theory that sets the injection timing of the incoming pulses to accelerate electrons and ions with a tunable phase velocity plasma wave. Simulation results are also presented which demonstrate 1.12 GeV proton beams accelerated in 3.6 mm of plasma and electron acceleration gradients on the order of 1 TeV/m in a scheme that circumvents dephasing. This work has potential applications as a compact accelerator for medical physics and high energy physics colliders.

Laser-produced plasmas↗
DOE OSTI2023

Non-thermal electron acceleration from magnetically driven reconnection in a laboratory plasma

Magnetic reconnection rapidly converts magnetic energy into some combination of plasma flow energy, thermal energy and non-thermal energetic particles. Various reconnection acceleration mechanisms have been theoretically proposed and numerically studied in different collisionless and low-β environments, where β refers to the plasma-to-magnetic pressure ratio. These mechanisms include Fermi acceleration, betatron acceleration, parallel electric field acceleration along magnetic fields and direct acceleration by the reconnection electric field. However, none of them have been experimentally confirmed, as the direct observation of non-thermal particle acceleration in laboratory experiments has been difficult due to short Debye lengths for in situ measurements and short mean free paths for ex situ measurements. Here we report the direct measurement of accelerated non-thermal electrons from magnetically driven reconnection at low β in experiments using a laser-powered capacitor coil platform. We use kilojoule lasers to drive parallel currents to reconnect megagauss-level magnetic fields in a quasi-axisymmetric geometry. The angular dependence of the measured electron energy spectrum and the resulting accelerated energies, supported by particle-in-cell simulations, indicate that the mechanism of direct electric field acceleration by the out-of-plane reconnection electric field is at work. Scaled energies using this mechanism show direct relevance to astrophysical observations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Study of applied magnetic field magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters with particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo collision. II. Investigation of acceleration mechanisms

The particle-in-cell method previously described in paper (I) has been applied to the investigation of acceleration mechanisms in applied-field magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters. This new approach is an alternative to magnetohydrodynamics models and allows nonlocal dynamic effects of particles and improved transport properties. It was used to model a 100 kW, steady-state, applied-field, argon magnetoplasmadynamic thruster to study the physical acceleration processes with discharge currents of 1000-1500 A, mass flow rates of 0.025-0.1 g/s and applied magnetic field strengths of 0.034-0.102 T. The total thrust calculations were used to verify the theoretical approach by comparison with experimental data. Investigations of the acceleration model offer an underlying understanding of applied-field magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, including the following conclusions: (1) swirl acceleration mechanism is the dominant contributor to the plasma acceleration, and self-magnetic, Hall, gas-dynamic, and swirl acceleration mechanisms are in an approximate ratio of 1:10:10:100; (2) the Hall acceleration produced mainly by electron swirl is insensitive to the change of externally applied magnetic field and shows only slight increases when the current is raised; (3) self-magnetic acceleration is normally negligible for all cases, while the gas-dynamic acceleration contribution increases with increasing applied magnetic field strength, discharge current, and mass flow rate.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

A compact linear accelerator based on a scalable microelectromechanical-system RF-structure

Here, a new approach for a compact radio-frequency (RF) accelerator structure is presented. The new accelerator architecture is based on the Multiple Electrostatic Quadrupole Array Linear Accelerator (MEQALAC) structure that was first developed in the 1980s. The MEQALAC utilized RF resonators producing the accelerating fields and providing for higher beam currents through parallel beamlets focused using arrays of electrostatic quadrupoles (ESQs). While the early work obtained ESQs with lateral dimensions on the order of a few centimeters, using a printed circuit board (PCB), we reduce the characteristic dimension to the millimeter regime, while massively scaling up the potential number of parallel beamlets. Using Microelectromechanical systems scalable fabrication approaches, we are working on further red ucing the characteristic dimension to the sub-millimeter regime. The technology is based on RF-acceleration components and ESQs implemented in the PCB or silicon wafers where each beamlet passes through beam apertures in the wafer. The complete accelerator is then assembled by stacking these wafers. This approach has the potential for fast and inexpensive batch fabrication of the components and flexibility in system design for application specific beam energies and currents. For prototyping the accelerator architecture, the components have been fabricated using the PCB. In this paper, we present proof of concept results of the principal components using the PCB: RF acceleration and ESQ focusing. Finally, ongoing developments on implementing components in silicon and scaling of the accelerator technology to high currents and beam energies are discussed.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

ON PARTICLE ACCELERATION RATE IN GAMMA-RAY BURST AFTERGLOWS

It is well known that collisionless shocks are major sites of particle acceleration in the universe, but the details of the acceleration process are still not well understood. The particle acceleration rate, which can shed light on the acceleration process, is rarely measured in astrophysical environments. Here, we use observations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows, which are weakly magnetized relativistic collisionless shocks in ion-electron plasma, to constrain the rate of particle acceleration in such shocks. We find, based on X-ray and GeV afterglows, an acceleration rate that is most likely very fast, approaching the Bohm limit, when the shock Lorentz factor is in the range of {Gamma} {approx} 10-100. In that case X-ray observations may be consistent with no amplification of the magnetic field in the shock upstream region. We examine the X-ray afterglow of GRB 060729, which is observed for 642 days showing a sharp decay in the flux starting about 400 days after the burst, when the shock Lorentz factor is {approx}5. We find that inability to accelerate X-ray-emitting electrons at late time provides a natural explanation for the sharp decay, and that also in that case acceleration must be rather fast, and cannot be more than a 100 times slower than the Bohm limit. We conclude that particle acceleration is most likely fast in GRB afterglows, at least as long as the blast wave is ultrarelativistic.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

PROPERTIES OF THE ACCELERATION REGIONS IN SEVERAL LOOP-STRUCTURED SOLAR FLARES

Using RHESSI hard X-ray imaging spectroscopy observations, we analyze electron flux maps for a number of extended coronal loop flares. For each event, we fit a collisional model with an extended acceleration region to the observed variation of loop length with electron energy E, resulting in estimates of the plasma density in, and longitudinal extent of, the acceleration region. These quantities in turn allow inference of the number of particles within the acceleration region and hence the filling factor f-the ratio of the emitting volume to the volume that encompasses the emitting region(s). We obtain values of f that lie mostly between 0.1 and 1.0; the (geometric) mean value is f = 0.20 Multiplication-Sign / Division-Sign 3.9, somewhat less than, but nevertheless consistent with, unity. Further, coupling information on the number of particles in the acceleration region with information on the total rate of acceleration of particles above a certain reference energy (obtained from spatially integrated hard X-ray data) also allows inference of the specific acceleration rate (electron s{sup -1} per ambient electron above the chosen reference energy). We obtain a (geometric) mean value of the specific acceleration rate {eta}(20 keV) =(6.0 Multiplication-Sign / Division-Sign 3.4) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -3} electrons s{sup -1} per ambient electron; this value has implications both for the global electrodynamics associated with replenishment of the acceleration region and for the nature of the particle acceleration process.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

INJECTION AND ACCELERATION OF ELECTRONS AT A STRONG SHOCK: RADIO AND X-RAY STUDY OF YOUNG SUPERNOVA 2011dh

In this paper, we develop a model for the radio and X-ray emissions from the Type IIb supernova (SN IIb) 2011dh in the first 100 days after the explosion, and investigate a spectrum of relativistic electrons accelerated at a strong shock wave. The widely accepted theory of particle acceleration, the so-called diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) or Fermi mechanism, requires seed electrons with modest energy with {gamma} {approx} 1-100, and little is known about this pre-acceleration mechanism. We derive the energy distribution of relativistic electrons in this pre-accelerated energy regime. We find that the efficiency of the electron acceleration must be low, i.e., {epsilon}{sub e} {approx}< 10{sup -2} as compared to the conventionally assumed value of {epsilon}{sub e} {approx} 0.1. Furthermore, independent of the low value of {epsilon}{sub e}, we find that the X-ray luminosity cannot be attributed to any emission mechanisms suggested as long as these electrons follow the conventionally assumed single power-law distribution. A consistent view between the radio and X-ray can only be obtained if the pre-acceleration injection spectrum peaks at {gamma} {approx} 20-30 and then only a fraction of these electrons eventually experience the DSA-like acceleration toward the higher energy-then the radio and X-ray properties are explained through the synchrotron and inverse Compton mechanisms, respectively. Our findings support the idea that the pre-acceleration of the electrons is coupled with the generation/amplification of the magnetic field.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

STOCHASTIC PARTICLE ACCELERATION AND THE PROBLEM OF BACKGROUND PLASMA OVERHEATING

The origin of hard X-ray (HXR) excess emission from clusters of galaxies is still an enigma, whose nature is debated. One of the possible mechanisms to produce this emission is the bremsstrahlung model. However, previous analytical and numerical calculations showed that in this case the intracluster plasma had to be overheated very fast because suprathermal electrons emitting the HXR excess lose their energy mainly by Coulomb losses, i.e., they heat the background plasma. It was concluded also from these investigations that it is problematic to produce emitting electrons from a background plasma by stochastic (Fermi) acceleration because the energy supplied by external sources in the form of Fermi acceleration is quickly absorbed by the background plasma. In other words, the Fermi acceleration is ineffective for particle acceleration. We revisited this problem and found that at some parameter of acceleration the rate of plasma heating is rather low and the acceleration tails of nonthermal particles can be generated and exist for a long time while the plasma temperature is almost constant. We showed also that for some regime of acceleration the plasma cools down instead of being heated up, even though external sources (in the form of external acceleration) supply energy to the system. The reason is that the acceleration withdraws effectively high-energy particles from the thermal pool (analog of Maxwell demon).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

PROBING DYNAMICS OF ELECTRON ACCELERATION WITH RADIO AND X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY, IMAGING, AND TIMING IN THE 2002 APRIL 11 SOLAR FLARE

Based on detailed analysis of radio and X-ray observations of a flare on 2002 April 11 augmented by realistic three-dimensional modeling, we have identified a radio emission component produced directly at the flare acceleration region. This acceleration region radio component has distinctly different (1) spectrum, (2) light curves, (3) spatial location, and, thus, (4) physical parameters from those of the separately identified trapped or precipitating electron components. To derive evolution of physical parameters of the radio sources we apply forward fitting of the radio spectrum time sequence with the gyrosynchrotron source function with five to six free parameters. At the stage when the contribution from the acceleration region dominates the radio spectrum, the X-ray- and radio-derived electron energy spectral indices agree well with each other. During this time the maximum energy of the accelerated electron spectrum displays a monotonic increase with time from {approx}300 keV to {approx}2 MeV over roughly one minute duration indicative of an acceleration process in the form of growth of the power-law tail; the fast electron residence time in the acceleration region is about 2-4 s, which is much longer than the time of flight and so requires a strong diffusion mode there to inhibit free-streaming propagation. The acceleration region has a relatively strong magnetic field, B {approx} 120 G, and a low thermal density, n{sub e} {approx}< 2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 9} cm{sup -3}. These acceleration region properties are consistent with a stochastic acceleration mechanism.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

GYROSURFING ACCELERATION OF IONS IN FRONT OF EARTH's QUASI-PARALLEL BOW SHOCK

It is well known that shocks in space plasmas can accelerate particles to high energies. However, many details of the shock acceleration mechanism are still unknown. A critical element of shock acceleration is the injection problem; i.e., the presence of the so called seed particle population that is needed for the acceleration to work efficiently. In our case study, we present for the first time observational evidence of gyroresonant surfing acceleration in front of Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock resulting in the appearance of the long-suspected seed particle population. For our analysis, we use simultaneous multi-spacecraft measurements provided by the Cluster spacecraft ion (CIS), magnetic (FGM), and electric field and wave instrument (EFW) during a time period of large inter-spacecraft separation distance. The spacecraft were moving toward the bow shock and were situated in the foreshock region. The results show that the gyroresonance surfing acceleration takes place as a consequence of interaction between circularly polarized monochromatic (or quasi-monochromatic) transversal electromagnetic plasma waves and short large amplitude magnetic structures (SLAMSs). The magnetic mirror force of the SLAMS provides the resonant conditions for the ions trapped by the waves and results in the acceleration of ions. Since wave packets with circular polarization and different kinds of magnetic structures are very commonly observed in front of Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock, the gyroresonant surfing acceleration proves to be an important particle injection mechanism. We also show that seed ions are accelerated directly from the solar wind ion population.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

A KINETIC TRANSPORT THEORY FOR PARTICLE ACCELERATION AND TRANSPORT IN REGIONS OF MULTIPLE CONTRACTING AND RECONNECTING INERTIAL-SCALE FLUX ROPES

Simulations of particle acceleration in turbulent plasma regions with multiple contracting and merging (reconnecting) magnetic islands emphasize the key role of temporary particle trapping in island structures for the efficient acceleration of particles to form hard power-law spectra. Statistical kinetic transport theories have been developed that capture the essential physics of particle acceleration in multi-island regions. The transport theory of Zank et al. is further developed by considering the acceleration effects of both the mean and the variance of the electric fields induced by the dynamics of multiple inertial-scale flux ropes. A focused transport equation is derived that includes new Fokker-Planck terms for particle scattering and stochastic acceleration due to the variance in multiple flux-rope magnetic fields, plasma flows, and reconnection electric fields. A Parker transport equation is also derived in which a new expression for momentum diffusion appears, combining stochastic acceleration by particle scattering in the mean multi-flux-rope electric fields with acceleration by the variance in these electric fields. Test particle acceleration is modeled analytically considering drift acceleration by the variance in the induced electric fields of flux ropes in the slow supersonic, radially expanding solar wind. Hard power-law spectra occur for sufficiently strong inertial-scale flux ropes with an index modified by adiabatic cooling, solar wind advection, and diffusive escape from flux ropes. Flux ropes might be sufficiently strong behind interplanetary shocks where the index of suprathermal ion power-law spectra observed in the supersonic solar wind can be reproduced.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Energy recovery proton linear accelerator

High-power proton linear accelerators have important applications in both scientific research and industry. However, the operation of such accelerators with megawatt-level beam power is expensive and limits the broad availability of these facilities. In this Letter, we propose a novel energy recovery proton linear accelerator in which the final GeV-level proton beam is reinjected into the linear accelerator from the accelerator exit and is decelerated in the same accelerator down to about 2 MeV, close to the initial beam energy. This substantially reduces the power consumption of the proton linear accelerator and also avoids the need for a high-power beam dump. We demonstrate this concept through self-consistent simulations and show that the beam-beam effect between the forward-accelerating beam and the backward-decelerating beam would not be a limiting factor for the proposed concept. A potential application of this concept to an electron-ion collider based on energy recovery electron and ion accelerators is discussed.

Energy recovery linacs↗
DOE OSTI2010

Advanced treatment planning methods for efficient radiation therapy with laser accelerated proton and ion beams

Purpose: Laser plasma acceleration can potentially replace large and expensive cyclotrons or synchrotrons for radiotherapy with protons and ions. On the way toward a clinical implementation, various challenges such as the maximum obtainable energy still remain to be solved. In any case, laser accelerated particles exhibit differences compared to particles from conventional accelerators. They typically have a wide energy spread and the beam is extremely pulsed (i.e., quantized) due to the pulsed nature of the employed lasers. The energy spread leads to depth dose curves that do not show a pristine Bragg peak but a wide high dose area, making precise radiotherapy impossible without an additional energy selection system. Problems with the beam quantization include the limited repetition rate and the number of accelerated particles per laser shot. This number might be too low, which requires a high repetition rate, or it might be too high, which requires an additional fluence selection system to reduce the number of particles. Trying to use laser accelerated particles in a conventional way such as spot scanning leads to long treatment times and a high amount of secondary radiation produced when blocking unwanted particles. Methods: The authors present methods of beam delivery and treatment planning that are specifically adapted to laser accelerated particles. In general, it is not necessary to fully utilize the energy selection system to create monoenergetic beams for the whole treatment plan. Instead, within wide parts of the target volume, beams with broader energy spectra can be used to simultaneously cover multiple axially adjacent spots of a conventional dose delivery grid as applied in intensity modulated particle therapy. If one laser shot produces too many particles, they can be distributed over a wider area with the help of a scattering foil and a multileaf collimator to cover multiple lateral spot positions at the same time. These methods are called axial and lateral clustering and reduce the number of particles that have to be blocked in the beam delivery system. Furthermore, the optimization routine can be adjusted to reduce the number of dose spots and laser shots. The authors implemented these methods into a research treatment planning system for laser accelerated particles. Results: The authors' proposed methods can decrease the amount of secondary radiation produced when blocking particles with wrong energies or when reducing the total number of particles from one laser shot. Additionally, caused by the efficient use of the beam, the treatment time is reduced considerably. Both improvements can be achieved without extensively changing the quality of the treatment plan since conventional intensity modulated particle therapy usually includes a certain amount of unused degrees of freedom which can be used to adapt to laser specific properties. Conclusions: The advanced beam delivery and treatment planning methods reduce the need to have a perfect laser-based accelerator reproducing the properties of conventional accelerators that might not be possible without increasing treatment time and secondary radiation to the patient. The authors show how some of the differences to conventional beams can be overcome and efficiently used for radiation treatment.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗