| Grant number: | 21/13737-8 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| Start date: | April 01, 2022 |
| End date: | March 31, 2023 |
| Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Physics of Fluids, Plasma Physics and Electrical Discharge |
| Principal Investigator: | Nilson Dias Vieira Junior |
| Grantee: | Jhonatha Ricardo dos Santos |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Econômico (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
| Associated research grant: | 17/50332-0 - Scientific, technological and infrastructure qualification in radiopharmaceuticals, radiation and entrepreneurship for health purposes (PDIp), AP.PDIP |
Abstract Unlike traditional radiotherapy methods, proton therapy uses beams of accelerated protons with the ability to penetrate deep seated tumors in the patient's organ, with minimal damage to the health tissues. Studies indicate that this phenomenon is a consequence of the kinetic energy acquired by the protons being mainly transferred to the tissues at the end of the track position. This can be calculated to be the exact position of tumor masses. Despite all the technological advances already achieved, regarding implantation and equipment, the costs involved in the construction and maintenance of proton treatment centers are still extremely high. Envisioning a solution for the high costs involved in the conventional application of proton therapy, recent results present an alternative method that uses high power lasers to promote proton acceleration through laser-plasma interaction. However, an adequate acceleration for the application of protontherapy requires an energy of more than 200 MeV, that is only achieved theoretically, and experimental results with the use of very high peak-power lasers is limited to 100 MeV, a fact that still makes these process unpractical nowadays, as high-power lasers have very low repetition rates. This work proposes the studies to promote the wakefield acceleration of electrons by ultrashort laser pulses (~fs) generated by sub-TW laser systems and subsequent study of proton acceleration processes. The approach involves in-cell particle simulations, with the aim of analyzing the conditions to achieve the wakefield acceleration regime, and an optimization of optical systems to achieve the desired pulse configurations. | |
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