Description
L. Labate, M. G. Andreassi, F. Baffigi, R. Bizzarri, A. Borghini, G. .C Bussolino, L. Fulgentini, F. Ghetti, A. Giulietti, P. Köster, D. Lamia, T. Levato, .Y Oishi, .S Pulignani, G. Russo, .A Sgarbossa and L. A. Gizzi
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 49, 275401 (2016)
Abstract
We present a laser-driven source of electron bunches with average energy 260 keV and picosecond duration, which has been setup for radiobiological tests covering the previously untested sub-MeV energy range. Each bunch combines high charge with short duration and sub-millimeter range into a record instantaneous dose rate, as high as 10(9) Gy s(-1). The source can be operated at 10 Hz and its average dose rate is 35 mGy s(-1). Both the high instantaneous dose rate and high level of relative biological effectiveness, attached to sub-MeV electrons, make this source very attractive for studies of ultrafast radiobiology on thin cell samples. The source reliability, in terms of shot-to-shot stability of features such as mean energy, bunch charge and transverse beam profile, is discussed, along with a dosimetric characterization. Finally, a few preliminary biological tests performed with this source are presented.
