Development of a Penning-Malmberg Trap Plasma for use as a Gabor Lens

LhARA (Laser-hybrid Accelerator for Radiobiological Applications) is a proposed accelerator for producing and delivering laser-accelerated ions for the study and development of ion FLASH cancer radiotherapy [1]. The project aims to develop new accelerator techniques to achieve goals of improved sustainability and access for proton and ion therapy. Central to the proposed machine are capture optics based on using Gabor lenses to reduce the economic impact a physical scale of large-aperture focusing solenoids. Gabor lenses utilize radial electrical fields in non-neutral plasmas to achieve focusing of high-energy charged particle beams. This poster presents progress on developing the use of Penning-Malmberg trapped electron plasmas as a Gabor lens to capture and focus the initially ions (~ 15 MeV) produced by target sheath normal acceleration as an alternative to approach to discharge-plasma lenses investigated for this purpose [2].



[1] A. Galen, et al. “The Laser-hybrid Accelerator for Radiobiological Applications”, Frontier in Physics, 2020, 8

[2] T. Nonnenmacher, et al. “Anamalous Beam Transport through Gabor (Plasma) Lens Prototype”. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(10), 4357