Speaker
Description
The development of novel medical imaging techniques like PET (Positron Emission Tomography) or SPECT (Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography) has led to the increase in the demand of nuclear radioisotopes for medical diagnostics. At present, radioisotope production for medical imaging and treatment is principally done at conventional accelerators (cyclotrons) and dedicated nuclear reactors. In the particular case of + emitters used in PET imaging, the current approach is based on the production of + radiotracers at large singular facilities, which are in charge of the radioisotope supply at a regional or national scale. Due to the cost of radiotracer production centers, accelerators, radiopharmacy, and particularly radiation shielding, the economic viability of these centers is based on the mass-scale production of single doses distributed to as many as possible hospitals and research centers. As a result of this regional scope, commercial isotope production of PET radioisotopes is mainly limited to 18 F: with a half-life of around 110 min, it can endure the time required for the production, the post-processing, and the distribution. For this reason, the production of a limited number of doses of shorter-lived radioisotopes such as 11 C (~20 min), 13 N(~10 min), or 15 O (~2 min) is generally out of the scope of these facilities. On this subject, over the last decades, the use of ultra-short, ultra-intense lasers for radioisotope production has been proposed as a cost efficient alternative for on-demand production of single doses of short-lived radioisotopes. Through the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) mechanism, ultra-intense laser pulses (I >10 18 W/cm 2 ) impinging on a micrometric target sheet can result in the acceleration of ion beams up to several tens of MeV. The nature and properties of the laser-induced acceleration process solve the main constraint of conventional production facilities. As the laser-target interaction occurs in a micrometric spatial length, shielding requirements are much lower in comparison to nuclear reactors or accelerators. Thus, laser systems of this class become significantly more affordable for hospitals, clinics, and research centers. They could then produce radioisotopes on demand, and even explore shorter-lived emitters which are out of actual production scheme based on conventional accelerators and nuclear reactors. In this work we present the main achievements of the Laser Laboratory for Acceleration and Applications at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in developing the technologies required for this new technology to become a real breakthrough on medical radioisotope production.