High power laser production of short-lived isotopes for positron emission tomography

Abstract

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful diagnostic/imaging technique requiring the production of the short-lived positron emitting isotopes 11 C, 13 N, 15 O and 18 F by proton irradiation of natural/enriched targets using cyclotrons. The development of PET has been hampered due to the size and shielding requirements of nuclear installations. Recent results show that when an intense laser beam interacts with solid targets, megaelectronvolt (MeV) protons capable of producing PET isotopes are generated. This report describes how to generate intense PET sources of 11 C and 18 F using a petawatt laser beam. The work describing the laser production of 18 F through a (p,n) 18 O reaction, and the subsequent synthesis of 2-[ 18 F] is reported for the first time. The potential for developing compact laser technology for this purpose is discussed.

High-intensity laser-driven proton acceleration: influence of pulse contrast

“…These techniques have even been applied to measure the spatial and temporal evolution of the electrostatic fields responsible for laser-driven ion acceleration. Other proposed applications of this potentially compact ion source include ion radiotherapy (Bulanov et al 2002), isotope production for medical imaging techniques (Ledingham et al 2004) and as injectors for the next generation of ion accelerators (Krushelnick et al 2000). The need to optimize and control ion acceleration for many of these applications has motivated a number of research groups worldwide to investigate laser-driven proton and heavier ion acceleration.…”

High Power Lasers and Their New Applications

“…The basic experiments have been performed and the possibility for developing on-site, easy-to-shield, and compact laser system was also discussed [48][49][50]. For example, 10 MBq of 11 C were generated via 11 B(, )…”

“…The required activities of positron emitter for PET are ~1 GBq for 11 C, and ~0.5 GBq for 18 F. It is suggested from the various experimental results given in [48][49][50] that, in order to achieve these activities, a compact laser system with an output energy of 10 J in 20 fs at 100 Hz repetition and focusable intensity of > 10 20 W/cm 2 will be required.…”

Two-stage acceleration of protons from relativistic laser-solid interaction

“…Generation of high energy well-collimated proton beams by relativistic intense lasers has attracted much interest in the past decade because its wide potential applications, such as proton oncology [1], medical isotope production [2], proton imaging [3], heavy-ion lithograph [4], as pre-accelerated bunch for injection into conventional accelerators [5], fast-ion ignition for inertial confinement fusion [6], etc. For cancer therapy, one needs 200~250MeV protons with ~1% energy spread and >10 10 s -1 flux [7].…”