Kansai Institute for Photon Science 　|　Laser Driven Ion Accelerator Project

Outline of Research 

Ion beams of several to several tens of MeV per nucleon can be obtained by irradiating a target such as a thin film or a gas with an ultra-short high peak power laser. At the Kansai Photon Science Institute, we have been conducting research and development of laser-driven ion acceleration using an ultra-short high peak power laser (J-KAREN-P). We are going to upgrade this technology to commercialize as a compact accelerator that uses the laser-driven ion acceleration phenomenon. If we can achieve this, we will be able to materialize the practical application of laser acceleration, which has not yet been realized. The laser-driven ion bunch is expected to generate high-density, short-pulse ion bunches, which are difficult to produce with conventional accelerator technology, and is expected to provide important insights into the operation of accelerators at high current densities.

On the other hand, QST offers heavy-ion cancer therapy, which is a proven and gentle form of radiation therapy for cancer patients. Heavy-ion therapy is characterized by its high biological effect and local controllability, and has been shown to be highly effective in treating unresectable pancreatic cancer, for example. On the other hand, heavy-ion cancer therapy requires a large accelerator to produce heavy-ion beams with sufficient energy for treatment, and its miniaturization is a challenge for its widespread use. As a part of the QST Innovation Project, a next-generation heavy-ion cancer therapy device (Quantum Scalpel) is now under development with using superconducting accelerator technology and laser acceleration technology to realize a compact device. In this project, we are conducting a proof-of-concept study of a laser-driven injector for a next-generation superconducting synchrotron as an injector of a quantum scalpel by utilizing the above-mentioned advanced research and development capabilities of laser acceleration technology in JST's "Development and Demonstration of Laser-Driven Quantum Beam Accelerator" project for creating a future society. Research is being conducted. 

Specifically, we will generate laser-driven ion beams, including carbon beams, using a high repetition-rate, ultrashort high-peak-power Ti:sapphire laser in cooperation with the X-ray Ultrafine Structure Processing Project, and evaluate their characteristics. This will lead to the development of the quantum scalpel injector mentioned above, as well as research on the interaction of the high-energy ion bunch with materials and living organisms. 

Members 

Main Research Activities

 Development of a laser-accelerated carbon ion source​

​Particle therapy using heavy-ion beams has been attracting attention in recent years from the viewpoint of quality of life because of its low physical burden on patients and ease of reintegration into society after healing. However, there are currently only seven heavy-ion cancer treatment facilities in Japan, including those under construction, and the number of patients who can be treated remains at about 0.2% of all new cancer patients in Japan. In order to promote the use of heavy-ion cancer therapy, it is necessary to downsize the equipment. With the support of the JST-MIRAI program and the QST Innovation Project, KPSI is conducting research to downsize the injector for the main synchrotron accelerator by using laser-driven ion acceleration technology (Figure 1). 

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Figure１：Heavy ion radiotherapy system using laser driven ion accelerator

List of Achievements (Papers, Awards, Press Releases, etc.)

 papers [refereed papers]  (from 2018) 

2021

• “Denoising application for electron spectrometer in laser-driven ion acceleration using a Simulation-supervised Learning based CDAE” T. Miyatake,  K. Shiokawa,  H. Sakaki,  N. P. Dover,  M. Nishiuchi,  H. F. Lowe,  Kootaro Kondo,  A. Kon,  M. Kando,  Kiminori Kondo, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 999, 165227, (2021)
• “Improvement of ignition and burning target design for fast ignition scheme” H. Nagatomo, T. Johzaki, M. Hata, Y. Sentoku, S. Fujioka, K. Mima, H. Sakagami, Nuclear Fusion 61, 126032 (2021).
• “Pulse duration constraint of whistler waves in magnetized dense plasma” M. Hata, T. Sano, S. Yasuhiko, H. Nagatomo, H. Sakagami, Physical Review E 104, 035205 (2021).
• “Absolute response of a Fuji BAS-TR imaging plate to low-energy protons (< 0.2 MeV) and carbon ions (< 1 MeV)” S. Kojima,  M. Tatsuhiko,  S. Inoue,  T. Dinh,  N. Hasegawa,  M. Mori,  H. Sakaki,  N. Mamiko,  N. P. Dover,  Y. Yoichi,  S. Teru,  I. Fuyumi,  Kotaro Kondo,  T. Yamanaka,  M. Hashida,  S. Sakabe,  M. Nishikino,  Kiminori Kondo, Review of Scientific Instruments, 92(3), 033306, (2021)

2020

• “Characterization of Accumulated B-Integral of Regenerative Amplifier Based CPA Systems” S. Bock,  Franziska M. Herrmann,  T. Püschel,  U. Helbig,  R. Gebhardt,   J. J. Lötfering,  R. Pausch,  K. Zeil,  T. Ziegler,  A. Irman,  T. Oksenhendler,  A. Kon,  M. Nishiuchi,  H. Kiriyama,  Kiminori Kondo,  T. Toncian,  U. Schramm, Crystals , 10(9), 847 - 869, (2020)
• “High-Intensity Laser-Driven Oxygen Source from CW Laser-Heated Titanium Tape Targets” Kotaro Kondo,  M. Nishiuchi,  H. Sakaki,  N. P. Dover,  H. F. Lowe,  T. Miyahara,  Y. Watanabe,  T. Ziegler,  K. Zeil,  U. Schramm,  E. J. Ditter,  G. S. Hicks,  O. C. Ettlinger,  Z. Najmudin,  H. Kiriyama,  M. Kando,  Kiminori Kondo, Crystals, 10(9), 837, (2020)
• “Petawatt femtosecond laser pulses from titanium-doped sapphire crystal” H. Kiriyama,  A. Pirozhkov,  M. Nishiuchi,  Y. Fukuda,  A. Sagisaka,  A. Kon,  Y. Miyasaka,  K. Ogura,  N. P. Dover,  Kotaro Kondo,  H. Sakaki,  J. K. Koga,  E. Timur,  K. Huang,  N. Nakanii,  M. Kando,  Kiminori Kondo,  S. Bock,  T. Ziegler,  T. Püschel,  K. Zeil,  U. Schramm, Crystals, 10(9), 783-1, (2020)
• “Ion species discrimination method by linear energy transfer measurement in Fujifilm BAS-SR Imaging Plate” M. Nishiuchi,  H. Sakaki,  N. P. Dover,  T. Miyahara,  K. Shiokawa,  S. Manabe,  T. Miyatake,  Kotaro Kondo,  Keietsu Kondo,  Y. Iwata,  Y. Watanabe,  Kiminori Kondo, Review of Scientific Instruments, 91(9), 093305, (2020)
• “Single-shot measurement of post-pulse-generated pre-pulse in high power laser systems” A. Kon,  M. Nishiuchi,  H. Kiriyama,  M. Kando,  S. Bock,  T. Ziegler ,  T. Pueschel,  K. Zeil,  U. Schramm,  Kiminori Kondo, Crystals, 10(8), 657 - 666, (2020)
• “Dynamics of Laser-driven Heavy Ion Acceleration Clari_x000C_ed by Ion Charge States” M. Nishiuchi,  N. P. Dover,  M. Hata ,  H. Sakaki,  Kotaro Kondo,  H. F. Lowe,  T. Miyahara,  H. Kiriyama,  J. Koga,  N. Iwata,  M. Alklhimova,  A. Pirozhkov,  A. Faenov,  P. Tatiana,  A. Sagisaka,  Y. Watanabe,  M. Kando,  Kiminori Kondo,  E. Ditter,  O. Ettlinger,  G. Hicks,  N. Zuflkar,  T. Ziegler,  K. Zeil,  U. Schramm,  Y. Sentoku, Physical Review Research, 2(3), (2020)
• “Compact Thomson parabola spectrometer  with variability of energy range and measurability  of angular distribution for low-energy laser-driven  accelerated ions” S. Kojima, T. Dinh, N. Hasegawa, M. Mori, H. Sakaki, Kotaro Kondo, M. Nishikino,  Kiminori Kondo, Review of Scientific Instruments, 91, 1 - 11, (2020)
• “Observation of Burst Intensification by Singularity Emitting Radiation generated from relativistic plasma with a high-intensity laser” A. Sagisaka,  K. Ogura,  E. Timur,  D. Neely,  T. Pikuz,  J. Koga,  Y. Fukuda,  H. Kotaki,  Y. Hayashi,  B. Gonzalez-Izquierdo,  K. Huang,  S. Bulanov,  H. Kiriyama,  Kiminori Kondo,  T. Kawachi,  M. Kando,  A. Pirozhkov, High Energy Density Physics, 36, 100751, (2020)
• ” Status and progress of the J-KAREN-P high intensity laser system at QST” H. Kiriyama,  A. Pirozhkov,  M. Nishiuchi,  Y. Fukuda,  K. Ogura,  A. Sagisaka,  Y. Miyasaka,  H. Sakaki,  N. Dover,  Kotaro Kondo,  H. Lowe,  A. Kon,  J. Koga,  E. Timur,  N. Nakanii,  K. Huang,  M. Kando,  Kiminori Kondo, High Energy Density Physics, 36, (2020)
• ” Multiple colliding laser pulses as a basis for studying high-field high-energy physics” J. Magnusson,  A. Gonoskov,  M. Marklund,  Esirkepov Timur,  James Kevin Koga,  Kiminori Kondo,  M. Kando,  S. V. Bulanov,  G. Korn,  C. G. R. Geddes,  C. B. Schroeder,  E. Esarey,  S. S. Blanov, Physical Review A, 100(6), 063404, (2020)
• “Demonstration of repetitive energetic proton generation by ultra-intense laser interaction with a tape target” N. Dover,  M. Nishiuchi,  H. Sakaki,  Kotaro Kondo,  M. A. Alkhimova,  A. Ya. Faenov,  M. Hata,  N. Iwata,  H. Kiriyama,  J. Koga,  T. Miyahara,  T. A. Pikuz,  A. Pirozhkov,  A. Sagisaka,  Y. Sentoku,  Y. Watanabe,  M. Kando,  Kiminori Kondo,  H. Lowe,  E. J. Ditter,  O. C. Ettlinger,  G. S. Hicks,  Z. Najmudin,  U. Schramm,  T. Ziegler,  K. Zeil, High Energy Density Physics, 37, 100847, (2020)
• ” Experimental investigation on temporal contrast of pre-pulses by post-pulses in a petawatt laser facility” H. Kiriyama,  Y. Miyasaka,  A. Sagisaka,  K. Ogura,  M. Nishiuchi,  A. Pirozhkov,  Y. Fukuda,  M. Kando,  Kiminori Kondo, Optics Letters, 45(5), 1100 - 1103, (2020)
• ” Effect of small focus on electron heating and proton acceleration in ultra-relativistic laser-solid interactions” N. Dover,  M. Nishiuchi,  H. Sakaki,  Kotaro Kondo,  M. A. Alkhimova,  A. Ya. Faenov,  M. Hata,  N. Iwata,  H. Kiriyama,  J. Koga,  T. Miyahara,  T. A. Pikuz,  A. Pirozhkov,  A. Sagisaka,  Y. Sentoku,  Y. Watanabe,  M. Kando,  Kiminori Kondo, Physical Review Letters, 124, 084802, (2020)

2019

• “Optimized highly charged ion production for strong soft x-ray sources obeying a quasi-Moseley’s law”,  Y. Shimada, H. Kawasaki, K. Watanabe, H. Hara, K. Anraku, M. Shoji1, T. Oba, M. Matsuda, W. Jiang, A. Sunahara, M. Nishikino, S. Namba, G. O’Sullivan, T. Higashiguchi, AIP Advances 9, 115315 (2019).
• “Atomic kinetics calculations of complex highly-charged ions in plasmas in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium by using a Monte-Carlo approach”, A. Sasaki, R. More, K. Fujii, D. Kato, and I. Murakami, High Energy Density Physics 32, 051-7 (2019).
• “An estimation of line width roughness of photoresists for the extreme ultraviolet lithography due to photon shot noise using the percolation model” A. Sasaki, M.Ishino, and M. Nishikino, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 58, 055002 (2019).
• “Self-supporting tetrahedral amorphous carbon films consisting of multilayered structure prepared using filtered arc deposition” T. Harigai,  Y. Miyamoto,  M. Yamamoto,  T. Tanimoto,  Y. Suda,  H. Takikawa, T.  Kawano,  M. Nishiuchi,  H. Sakaki,  K. Kondo,  S. Kaneko,  S. Kunitsugu, Thin Solid Films, 675, 123 - 127, (2019)
• “Laser-Particle Collider for Multi-GeV Photon Production” J. Magnusson,  A. Gonoskov,  M. Marklund,  E. Timur, J. Koga, K. Kondo, M. Kando, S. Bulanov, G. Korn,  S. S. Bulanov, Physical Review Letters, 122(25), 254801, (2019) 

2018

• “High-contrast high-intensity repetitive petawatt laser” 桐山 博光,  ピロジコフ アレキサンダー,  西内 満美子,  福田 祐仁,  小倉 浩一,  匂坂 明人,  宮坂 泰弘,  森 道昭,  榊 泰直,  ドーバー ニコラス ピーター,  近藤 康太郎,  コーガ ジェームズ,  エシロケポフ ティムル,  神門 正城,  近藤 公伯, Optics Letters, 43(11), 2595 - 2598, (2018)
• “Ultra-intense X-Ray Radiation Photopumping of Exotic States of Matter by Relativistic Laser-Plasma in the Radiation-Dominated Kinetic Regime (RDKR)” A. Ya. Faenov,  J.Coglan,  S. A. Pikuz,  A. Zhidkov,  T. A. Pikuz,  J. Abdallah Jr.,  E. Tubman,  N. M. H. Butler,  R. J. Dance,  I. Yu. Skobelev,  M. Z. Alkhimova,  N. booth,  J. Green,  C. Gregory,  A. Andreev,  M. Nishiuchi  H. Sakaki,  Akito Sagisaka,  Alexander Pirozhkov,  Koichi Ogura,  Yuuji Fukuda,  Masato Kanasaki,  Noboru Hasegawa,  Masaharu Nishikino,  Masaki Kando,  Tetsuya Kawachi,  Kiminori Kondo,  P. McKenna,  G. J. Tallents,  N. Woolsey,  R. Kodama, Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on X-Ray Lasers, 202, 149 - 158, (2018)
• “Research on Laser Acceleration and Coherent X-RAY Generation Using J-KAREN-P Laser” M. Kando,  A. Pirozhkov,  M. Nishiuchi,  H. Kiriyama,  A. Kon,  H. Sakaki,  Y. Fukuda,  N. Dover,  K. Sekiguchi,  K. Nishitani,  A. Sagisaka,  T. A. Pikuz,  A. Ya. Faenov,  K. Ogura,  Y. Hayashi,  H. Kotaki,  T. Zh. Esirkepov,  K. Huang,  N. Nakanii,  Kiminori Kondo,  J. Koga,  Katsuya Kawachi, Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on X-Ray Lasers, 202, 135 - 142, (2018)
• “High-Order Harmonic Generation by Relativistic Plasma Singularities: The Driving Laser Requirements” Alexander Pirozhkov,  Esirkepov Timur,  T. A. Pikuz,  A, Ya. Faenov,  Koichi Ogura,  Y. Hayashi,  Hideyuki Kotaki,  E. N. Ragozin,  D. Neely,  Hiromitsu Kiriyama,  James Kevin Koga,  Yuuji Fukuda,  Akito Sagisaka,  Masaharu Nishikino,  Takashi Imazono,  Noboru Hasegawa,  Tetsuya Kawachi,  Hiroyuki Daido,  Yuta Kato,  S. V. Bulanov,  Kiminori Kondo,  Masaki Kando, Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on X-Ray Lasers, 202, 85 - 92, (2018)
• “The Observation of Transient Thin Film Structures During the Femto-Second Laser Ablation Process by Using the Soft X-Ray Laser Probe” 長谷川 登,  錦野 将元,  石野 雅彦,  N. Onishi,  A. M. Ito,  Y. Minami,  M. Baba,  A. Ya. Faenov,  N. Inogamov,  河内 哲哉,  近藤 公伯,  T. Suemoto, Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on X-Ray Lasers, 202, 273 - 278, (2018)
• ” Laser Requirements for High-Order Harmonic Generation by Relativistic Plasma Singularities” ピロジコフ アレキサンダー,  エシロケポフ ティムル,  T. A. Pikuz,  A. Ya. Faenov,  匂坂 明人,  小倉 浩一,  林 由紀雄,  小瀧 秀行,  E. N. Ragozin,  D. Neely,  コーガ ジェームズ,  福田 祐仁,  錦野 将元,  今園 孝志,  長谷川 登,  河内 哲哉,  大道 博行,  加藤 義章,  ブラノフ セルゲイ,  近藤 公伯,  桐山 博光,  神門 正城, Quantum Beam Science, 2(1), 7, (2018)
• “UV Harmonic Generation and Laser-Driven Proton Acceleration from Thin-Foil Target” Akito Sagisaka,  Alexander Pirozhkov,  Mamiko Nishiuchi,  Koichi Ogura,  Hironao Sakaki,  Anatoly Ya. Faenov,  Tatiana A. Pikuz,  Esirkepov Timur,  Sergey Bulanov,  Masaki Kando,  Hiromitsu Kiriyama,  Kiminori Kondo, The Review of Laser Engineering）, 46(3), 148 - 151, (2018)
• “The J-KAREN-P facility laser performance status” 桐山 博光,  西内 満美子,  ピロジコフ アレキサンダー,  福田 祐仁,  榊 泰直,  匂坂 明人,  ドーバー ニコラス ピーター,  近藤 康太郎,  小倉 浩一,  森 道昭,  宮坂 泰弘,  中新 信彦,  黄 開,  コーガ ジェームズ,  エシロケポフ ティムル,  神門 正城,  近藤 公伯, The Review of Laser Engineering, 46(3), 134 - 137, (2018)
• “Ion acceleration experiment with the high intensity, high contrast J-KAREN-P laser system” 西内 満美子,  桐山 博光,  榊 泰直,  ドーバー ニコラス ピーター,  近藤 康太郎,  宮原 巧,  コーガ ジェームズ,  ピロジコフ アレキサンダー,  匂坂 明人,  福田 祐仁,  小倉 浩一,  渡辺 幸信,  神門 正城,  近藤 公伯, The Review of Laser Engineering, 46(3), 145 - 147, (2018)
• “Development of Carbon-Ion Radiotherapy Facilities at NIRS” 岩田 佳之,  藤田 敬,  古川 卓司,  藤本 哲也,  原 洋介,  近藤 公伯,  水島 康太,  村上 健,  村松 正幸,  西内 満美子,  野田 悦夫,  野田 耕司,  榊 泰直,  早乙女 直也,  皿谷 有一,  佐藤 眞二,  白井 敏之,  丹正 亮平, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 28(3), 4400807, (2018)