Abstract

Thomson scattering sources with their hard x-ray pencil beams represent a promising candidate to drive high-resolution X-ray Fluorescence Imaging (XFI). As XFI is a scanning imaging modality, it specifically requires pencil-beam geometries along with a high beam mobility. In combination with laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) such sources could provide the compactness needed for a future transition into clinical application. A sufficient flux within a small bandwidth could enable in-vivo high-sensitivity XFI for early cancer diagnostics and pharmacokinetic imaging. We thus report on a specific all-laser driven source design directed at increasing the photon number within the bandwidth and opening angle defined by XFI conditions. Typical parameters of driver lasers and electron bunches from LWFA are utilized and controlled within realistic parameter regions on the basis of appropriate beam optics. An active plasma lens is implemented for chromatic focal control of the bunch. Source performance limits are identified and compared to existing x-ray sources with regard to their potential to be implemented in future clinical XFI.

Highlights

  • Synchrotron radiation (SR) sources have the potential to deliver hard x-rays with high photon number and low bandwidth within a small divergence angle

  • The pulse energy in the Thomson laser pulse is fixed at Ep 1⁄4 0.5 J, unless stated otherwise

  • We present a compact hard x-ray source design based on laser-wakefield acceleration (LWFA) and Thomson scattering (TS) with a photon number efficiency exceeding previously published results

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Summary

Introduction

Synchrotron radiation (SR) sources have the potential to deliver hard x-rays with high photon number and low bandwidth within a small divergence angle. This makes them an important research tool in many disciplines, including medical research where they could enable novel imaging modalities, such as x-ray fluorescence imaging (XFI) [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Being a scanning imaging modality, XFI explicitly requires pencil-beam geometries, as the spatial resolution is determined by the x-ray beam size. Hard x-rays (90 keV) are required to excite the Kα gold fluorescence and enable in-vivo imaging. Human XFI imaging became feasible by overcoming its intrinsic Compton-background problem for large objects [5]

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