LhaRA
As part of the LhARA collaboration our mission is to:
- Deliver a systematic and definitive radiation biology programme;
- Prove the feasibility of laser-driven hybrid acceleration, a technique that has the potential to underpin the next generation of accelerators for particle physics; and
- Lay the foundations for the transformation of ion beam therapy by creating a fully automated, patient-specific proton and ion beam therapy system.
Proton and light-ion beams have great potential in the treatment of cancer. To increase access to the benefits of the technique requires the size of the facility to be reduced substantially; to do this requires novel accelerator systems. We are developing new, laser-driven accelerator technologies and novel detector, instrumentation and image- processing techniques. As part of the John Adam's Institute, and in collaboration with the Imperial Space, Plasma, and Climate Community we are developing the Laser-hybrid Accelerator for Radiobiological Applications, LhARA; a novel system optimised to serve a systematic programme of radiobiology.
Highlights of the programme in which the group is involved include the:
- Numerical evaluation, design and prototyping of novel strong-focussing plasma lenses;
- Development of new non-destructive, real-time diagnostics for low-energy ion beams; and
- The interpretation of the radiobiology measurements made in the LhARA collaboration's proof-of-principle "PoPLaR” experiment.
A student joining the programme would be expected to contribute to one or more of these topics.
Contact:
Ken Long (k.long@imperial.ac.uk); Jaroslaw Pasternak (J.Pasternak@imperial.ac.uk)