Laser-driven radioisotope production at ELI-NP: How to approach

Successful demonstration to laser-driven nuclear reactions, resulting in synthesis of medical radioisotopes has been repeatedly reported, for a review see Ref. [1]. Most recently, the synthesis of ¹¹C was reported, claiming that the production of preclinical dose is achievable [2]. However, for the radioisotope production an important parameter is the specific activity which is generated in the production target. Recently, at ELI-NP a project, named “Dr. Laser”, was initiated related to medical applications of high-power lasers. One of the pillars of the project is demonstration of the production of medical radioisotopes with laser-driven proton and deutron beams, and in photonuclear reactions. In particular, one of the deliverables of the project is the production and characterization of pre-clinical doses of ¹¹C. Within this talk, I will discuss the planned experimental set-ups for the realization of the project and the simulation chain which is been carried out for optimization of the isotope production. The following chain following chain of simulations is considered: hydrodynamic laser-target simulations, PIC simulations for generation of the secondary beams, magnetooptical calculations for focusing of the secondary beam, Monte Carlo simulations for the interaction of the secondary beam with the production target considering different target materials, and radiochemical estimates for the extraction of the produced activity.

[1] Zhanliang Sun, AIP Advances 11, 040701 (2021)

[2] J. Peñas, A. Alejo, A. Bembibre et al. Sci. Rep. 14, 11448 (2024)