Ion acceleration driven by superintense laser pulses is attracting an impressive and steadily
increasing effort. Motivations can be found in the applicative potential and in the perspective …

It has been known for about sixty years that proton and heavy ion therapy is a very powerful
radiation procedure for treating tumors. It has an innate ability to irradiate tumors with greater …

Energetic ions have been observed since the very first laser-plasma experiments. Their
origin was found to be the charge separation of electrons heated by thelaser, which transfers …

The fundamental idea of Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) is reviewed. An ultrafast
intense laser pulse drives coherent wakefields of relativistic amplitude with the high phase …

The recent advancements in the field of laser-driven particle acceleration have made Laser-
driven Ion Beam Therapy (L-IBT) an attractive alternative to the conventional particle therapy …

Ten years ago, the authors of this report published a first paper on the technical challenges
that laser accelerators need to overcome before they could be applied to tumor therapy …

The physical and clinical benefits of charged particle therapy (CPT) are well recognized.
However, the availability of CPT and complete exploitation of dosimetric advantages are still …

A compact laser plasma accelerator (CLAPA) that can stably produce and transport proton
ions with different energies less than 10 MeV,< 1% energy spread, several to tens of pC …

Proton beams may provide superior dose-conformity in radiation therapy. However, the
large sizes and costs limit the widespread use of proton therapy (PT). The recent progress in …

The standalone superconducting continuous wave heavy ion linac HELIAC (HElmholtz
LInear ACcelerator) is a common project of GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research …