Laser-plasma electron and ion accelerators attract great interest for a wide range of applications thanks to the size, cost and repetition rate of the high-intensity lasers, and to the unique characteristics of the delivered particle beams. The high-impact applications include cancer radiotherapy, imaging with X-ray contrast techniques for early cancer detection, materials characterisation, radiation-driven chemistry, border-security through the detection of dangerous substances, and in a longer term applications in high-energy particle physics.
Our group works on furthering the state of the art in several of these applications. We have ongoing collaborations that aim to develop next-generation medical imaging technology. We have collaborated with biologists in studying the cellular respose to high dose radiation therapy (FLASH-RT). With the ebeam4therapy project, we are working on advancing a new frontier in cancer radiotherapy. For more information on ebeam4therapy, click the cancer therapy tab.