Oxford Centre for High Energy Density Science (OxCHEDS)

Abstract:

Protons of energies up to 37 MeV have been generated when ultra-intense lasers (up to 10²⁰Wcm^-2) interact with hydrogen containing solid targets. These protons can be used to induce nuclear reactions in secondary targets to produce β⁺-emitting nuclei of relevance to the nuclear medicine community, namely ¹¹C and ¹³N via (p,n) and (p,α) reactions. Activities of the order of 200 kBq have been measured from a single laser pulse interacting with a thin solid target. The possibility of using ultra-intense lasers to produce commercial amounts of short-lived positron emitting sources for positron emission tomography (PET) is discussed. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.