Laser-driven proton knives will treat cancer or are expected to be promoted
A recent study in the journal physical review letters published a study on the treatment of tumors in tumors.Specific studies said, will use the collisionless shock acceleration mechanism can produce the high quality of high-energy proton beam theory, proton energy under the condition of existing laser in order to improve the calibration correlates to the electron volts, which meet the requirements of laser treated with proton kill tumor cells.According to the research, the research has been supported by the Chinese academy of sciences (cas), the national key research and development plan and the national natural science foundation.
Reportedly, in the study, researchers used circularly polarized film class super ultrashort laser pulses bombardment of nano film thickness target, obtained the flow is strong, can permit to the high quality of proton beam, proton energy spectrum peak reached 9 MeV, peak flow up to 3 x 1012 protons/MeV/sr, become can kill tumor cells and protect the healthy cells of the laser beam.
The schematic diagram of high quality proton beam driven by a super short laser driven by circular polarization is accelerated
In fact, high-energy proton beam transmission in the substance has a unique Bragg peak, is simply the proton energy loss in the process of transmission usually, after a period of transmission distance, most of the energy proton beam mainly deposition in the end.So this applies to cancer in the body, effectively using the high energy at the end to kill cancer cells while protecting healthy cells.In fact, the treatment of proton knife tumor based on the traditional accelerator has made great progress both at home and abroad.Because the cost is very expensive, it is difficult to popularize.The, circular polarization, super ultra short laser driver speed up high quality proton beam formation, due to the accelerating gradient (per unit length in the particle energy) than conventional accelerators, greatly reducing accelerator, which is expected to reduce the treatment cost, become a new generation of proton scalpel a cure for cancer, the results of the study also represents a proton knife scheme of laser driver took a key step forward.
It is understood that the super ultrashort laser driven ultrashort pulse, high quality, high energy proton beam can also be applied to the proton photographic and material detection, laser fusion fast ignition, laboratory astrophysics, laser research of nuclear physics and nuclear medicine, etc.