Ultrashort Electron Beam Research Articles

Changes in Telomere Length in Leukocytes and Leukemic Cells after Ultrashort Electron Beam Radiation

Application of laser-generated electron beams in radiotherapy is a recent development. Accordingly, mechanisms of biological response to radiation damage need to be investigated. In this study, telomere length (TL) as endpoint of genetic damage was analyzed in human blood cells (leukocytes) and K562 leukemic cells irradiated with laser-generated ultrashort electron beam. Metaphases and interphases were analyzed in quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (Q-FISH) to assess TL. TLs were shortened compared to non-irradiated controls in both settings (metaphase and interphase) after irradiation with 0.5, 1.5, and 3.0 Gy in blood leukocytes. Radiation also caused a significant TL shortening detectable in the interphase of K562 cells. Overall, a negative correlation between TL and radiation doses was observed in normal and leukemic cells in a dose-dependent manner. K562 cells were more sensitive than normal blood cells to increasing doses of ultrashort electron beam radiation. As telomere shortening leads to genome instability and cell death, the results obtained confirm the suitability of this biomarker for assessing genotoxic effects of accelerated electrons for their further use in radiation therapy. Observed differences in TL shortening between normal and K562 cells provide an opportunity for further development of optimal radiation parameters to reduce side effects in normal cells during radiotherapy.

Ultrafast electron beam compression using chirped pulse beating laser

High-brightness ultrafast electron beams are of significant interest to researchers because of their diverse applications. In order to further improve the quality of ultrafast electron beams, we propose a novel method in this paper, which involves compressing electron beams by using the beating laser generated from two chirped radially polarized lasers. This proposed method allows for the compression of electron beams with different pulse widths. Furthermore, it employs two lasers from the same source, which minimizes the impact of laser’s transverse position offset on bunch compression at the modulation point. This method reduces the requirement of laser system and increases its robustness under non-ideal conditions, making it highly valuable for the generation and application of ultrashort electron beams.

Enhanced DNA damage induced by ultrashort electron beams in the presence of a Cu-containing porphyrin

This article presents an investigation into the interaction between ultrashort electron beams and DNA molecules. With the advent of advanced electron beam technology, the potential applications in various fields, including medicine and genetic engineering, have garnered significant attention. However, the intricate mechanisms underlying the interaction between ultrashort electron beams and DNA molecules remain largely unexplored. This study aims to bridge this gap in knowledge by obtaining experimental data. We used Cu containing water-soluble cationic 4-N meso-tetra-oxyethyl-pyridyl porphyrin. The electron beam irradiated the samples with different relative concentrations of porphyrin per base pair. It was shown that the presence of porphyrin enhances DNA stability, making it more resistant to radiation-induced damage, with the effect varying based on porphyrin concentration and irradiation dose.

Time dynamics of the dose deposited by relativistic ultra-short electron beams

Ultra-short electron beams are used as ultra-fast radiation source for radiobiology experiments aiming at very high energy electron beams (VHEE) radiotherapy with very high dose rates. Laser plasma accelerators are capable of producing electron beams as short as 1 fs and with tunable energy from few MeV up to multi-GeV with compact footprint. This makes them an attractive source for applications in different fields, where the ultra-short (fs) duration plays an important role. The time dynamics of the dose deposited by electron beams with energies in the range 50–250 MeV have been studied and the results are presented here. The results set a quantitative limit to the maximum dose rate at which the electron beams can impart dose.

Ultrafast electron diffraction: Visualizing dynamic states of matter

Understanding the structure and function of both energy and matter is a fundamental goal in science. Various spatiotemporal probes have been developed from electromagnetic waves spanning the entire range of the spectrum to neutrons and charged particles such as electrons. With the development of highly controlled, shorter electron bunches, retrieving dynamic structural information from solid-state and gas-phase samples is now possible at timescales that resolve atomic motion and length scales that resolve atomic positions in even the lightest elements. In this review advances in the generation, manipulation, and characterization of ultrashort electron beams are described.

Attosecond electron-beam technology: a review of recent progress.

Electron microscopy and diffraction with ultrashort pulsed electron beams are capable of imaging transient phenomena with the combined ultrafast temporal and atomic-scale spatial resolutions. The emerging field of optical electron beam control allowed the manipulation of relativistic and sub-relativistic electron beams at the level of optical cycles. Specifically, it enabled the generation of electron beams in the form of attosecond pulse trains and individual attosecond pulses. In this review, we describe the basics of the attosecond electron beam control and overview the recent experimental progress. High-energy electron pulses of attosecond sub-optical cycle duration open up novel opportunities for space-time-resolved imaging of ultrafast chemical and physical processes, coherent photon generation, free electron quantum optics, electron-atom scattering with shaped wave packets and laser-driven particle acceleration. Graphical Abstract.

Femtosecond diagnostics of ultrashort electron beam using a pinhole-based THz-driven deflector

THz-driven resonant structures such as rectangular slits has been widely used for femtosecond temporal characterization of ultrashort electron beams produced in photocathode rf guns. In this work, we show that a simple non-resonant subwavelength pinhole perforated on a metal foil can also provide femtosecond temporal diagnostics to ultrashort electron beams. The streaking effect of the pinhole structure is dominated by the reflected THz field near the surface. A time resolution of 1.5 fs is achieved for a 3 MeV electron beam using a pinhole with diameter of 100 μm. A secondary beam, common in photocathode rf gun but hard to observe with conventional beam diagnostic methods, is also observed with the THz pinhole deflector. In addition to measuring the temporal information of the electron beam, we show that the pinhole may also be used to measure the properties of the THz pulse using the electron beam as the probe. We believe such simple and commercially available pinhole structure is a robust and viable method for femtosecond temporal diagnostics of ultrashort electron beams.

The Effect of Low-Energy Laser-Driven Ultrashort Pulsed Electron Beam Irradiation on Erythropoiesis and Oxidative Stress in Rats.

Anemia is a commonly observed consequence of whole-body exposure to a dose of X-ray or gamma irradiation of the order of the mean lethal dose in mammals, and it is an important factor for the determination of the survival of animals. The aim of this study was to unravel the effect of laser-driven ultrashort pulsed electron beam (UPEB) irradiation on the process of erythropoiesis and the redox state in the organism. Wistar rats were exposed to laser-driven UPEB irradiation, after which the level of oxidative stress and the activities of different antioxidant enzymes, as well as blood smears, bone marrow imprints and sections, erythroblastic islets, hemoglobin and hematocrit, hepatic iron, DNA, and erythropoietin levels, were assessed on the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 14th, and 28th days after irradiation. Despite the fact that laser-driven UPEB irradiation requires quite low doses and repetition rates to achieve the LD50 in rats, our findings suggest that whole-body exposure with this new type of irradiation causes relatively mild anemia in rats, with subsequent fast recovery up to the 28th day. Moreover, this novel type of irradiation causes highly intense processes of oxidative stress, which, despite being relatively extinguished, did not reach the physiologically stable level even at the 28th day after irradiation due to the violations in the antioxidant system of the organism.

Ultrafast isolated molecule imaging without crystallization

Crystallography is the standard for determining the atomic structure of molecules. Unfortunately, many interesting molecules, including an extensive array of biological macromolecules, do not form crystals. While ultrashort and intense X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers are promising for imaging single isolated molecules with the so-called “diffraction before destruction” technique, nanocrystals are still needed for producing sufficient scattering signal for structure retrieval as implemented in serial femtosecond crystallography. Here, we show that a femtosecond laser pulse train may be used to align an ensemble of isolated molecules to a high level transiently, such that the diffraction pattern from the highly aligned molecules resembles that of a single molecule, allowing one to retrieve its atomic structure with a coherent diffraction imaging technique. In our experiment with CO2 molecules, a high degree of alignment is maintained for about 100 fs, and a precisely timed ultrashort relativistic electron beam from a table-top instrument is used to record the diffraction pattern within that duration. The diffraction pattern is further used to reconstruct the distribution of CO2 molecules with atomic resolution. Our results mark a significant step toward imaging noncrystallized molecules with atomic resolution and open opportunities in the study and control of dynamics in the molecular frame that provide information inaccessible with randomly oriented molecules.

The Activation оf DNА Repair Pathways after Ultra-Short Pulsed Electron Beam Irradiation in Human Cells

The aim of this work was to estimate the differences in activation of DNA repair pathways of DNA double-strand and single-strand breaks induced by ultrashort pulse electron beam irradiation in human K-562 cells. The activation of HR, NHEJ and BER DNA repair pathways was studied at non-lethal, sub-lethal and lethal doses of irradiation. Our results indicate that the activation of the specific repair pathways and repair kinetics depend on the irradiation dose.

Analysis of a higher-energy structure in nanotip enhanced fields

We investigate strong field ionization of an atomic gas in a plasmonically enhanced field resulting from the illumination of a nanometer-sized structure with ultrafast laser pulse. We use perturbation theory to derive an approximate solution for electron’s motion following ionization. These analytical estimates are corroborated by the time-dependent Schrödinger equation and classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations. Notably, our approach can be used to obtain electron energy spectra without having to rely on numerical simulations. This allows for a deeper study of the dependence of electron energy spectrum on the properties of the near-field, suggesting electric field sensor applications. We derive an analytical expression for the location of the peak of the higher-energy structure (HES) as a function of laser parameters and near-field decay length. We find a particularly strong dependence of the energy peak on laser frequency, with lower frequencies causing a significant upward shift in the final electron energies. Combined with control of the width of the HES, which can be done by changing the size of the nanostructure, this points to the possibility of using nanotips as sources of ultrashort electron beams of tunable energy.

Low-Energy Laser-Driven Ultrashort Pulsed Electron Beam Irradiation-Induced Immune Response in Rats.

The development of new laser-driven electron linear accelerators, providing unique ultrashort pulsed electron beams (UPEBs) with low repetition rates, opens new opportunities for radiotherapy and new fronts for radiobiological research in general. Considering the growing interest in the application of UPEBs in radiation biology and medicine, the aim of this study was to reveal the changes in immune system in response to low-energy laser-driven UPEB whole-body irradiation in rodents. Forty male albino Wistar rats were exposed to laser-driven UPEB irradiation, after which different immunological parameters were studied on the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 14th, and 28th day after irradiation. According to the results, this type of irradiation induces alterations in the rat immune system, particularly by increasing the production of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and elevating the DNA damage rate. Moreover, such an immune response reaches its maximal levels on the third day after laser-driven UPEB whole-body irradiation, showing partial recovery on subsequent days with a total recovery on the 28th day. The results of this study provide valuable insight into the effect of laser-driven UPEB whole-body irradiation on the immune system of the animals and support further animal experiments on the role of this novel type of irradiation.

Direct acceleration of collimated monoenergetic sub-femtosecond electron bunches driven by a radially polarized laser pulse.

High-quality ultrashort electron beams have diverse applications in a variety of areas, such as 4D electron diffraction and microscopy, relativistic electron mirrors and ultrashort radiation sources. Direct laser acceleration (DLA) mechanism can produce electron beams with a large amount of charge (several to hundreds of nC), but the generated electron beams usually have large divergence and wide energy spread. Here, we propose a novel DLA scheme to generate high-quality ultrashort electron beams by irradiating a radially polarized laser pulse on a nanofiber. Since electrons are continuously squeezed transversely by the inward radial electric field force, the divergence angle gradually decreases as electrons transport stably with the laser pulse. The well-collimated electron bunches are effectively accelerated by the circularly-symmetric longitudinal electric field and the relative energy spread also gradually decreases. It is demonstrated by three-dimensional (3D) simulations that collimated monoenergetic electron bunches with 0.75° center divergence angle and 14% energy spread can be generated. An analytical model of electron acceleration is presented which interprets well by the 3D simulation results.

AFFECT OF ULTRASHORT ELECTRON BEAMS ON THE ESCHERICHEA COLI SURVIVAL

The paper represents the study of ultrashort electron beams impact on some Escherichia coliK-12strains with different radiosensitivity. The charged particle beams generated by ultrashort bunch accelerators differ by short duration of particle direct exposure, relatively long intervals between bunches and by high values of instantaneous dose rates. Because of these characteristics, the nature of ultrashort beams impact on biological objects may sufficiently differ from conventional sources of radiation. As a source of ultrashort beams linear electron accellerator AREAL of SichrotronResearcinstitut CANDLE (Yerevan, Armenia) was used. The dependence of E.coli cells survival from electron bunches repetition rate and irradiation media was investigated. It is shown that the dose dependence of the survival degree of microorganisms has a qualitatively different unusual concave shape. Such behavior of the survival curves does not depend on the ionic composition of the irradiation medium as well as on the time of preliminary incubation of microorganisms in this medium. To explain the observed phenomenon, it was assumed that the compensatory capacity of the irradiated object increases with an increase of the irradiation dose.The proposed mathematical model described well the behavior of the survival curves. It is assumed that this change of the compensatory capacity may be determined by oxygen.

Cascaded high-gradient terahertz-driven acceleration of relativistic electron beams

Terahertz (THz)-driven acceleration has recently emerged as a new route for delivering ultrashort bright electron beams efficiently, reliably, and in a compact setup. Many THz-driven acceleration related working schemes and key technologies have been successfully demonstrated and are continuously being improved to new limits. However, the achieved acceleration gradient and energy gain remain low, and the potential physics and technical challenges in the high field and high energy regime are still under-explored. Here we report a record energy gain of 170 keV in a single-stage configuration, and demonstrate the first cascaded acceleration of a relativistic beam with a 204 keV energy gain in a two-stages setup. Whole-bunch acceleration is accomplished with an average accelerating gradient of 85 MV/m and a peak THz electric field of 1.1 GV/m. This proof-of-principle result is a crucial advance in THz-driven acceleration with a major impact on future electron sources and related scientific discoveries.

Comparing the efficacy of γ- and electron-irradiation of PBMCs to promote secretion of paracrine, regenerative factors

Cell-free secretomes represent a promising new therapeutic avenue in regenerative medicine, and γ-irradiation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) has been shown to promote the release of paracrine factors with high regenerative potential. Recently, the use of alternative irradiation sources, such as artificially generated β- or electron-irradiation, is encouraged by authorities. Since the effect of the less hazardous electron-radiation on the production and functions of paracrine factors has not been tested so far, we compared the effects of γ- and electron-irradiation on PBMCs and determined the efficacy of both radiation sources for producing regenerative secretomes. Exposure to 60 Gy γ-rays from a radioactive nuclide and 60 Gy electron-irradiation provided by a linear accelerator comparably induced cell death and DNA damage. The transcriptional landscapes of PBMCs exposed to either radiation source shared a high degree of similarity. Secretion patterns of proteins, lipids, and extracellular vesicles displayed similar profiles after γ- and electron-irradiation. Lastly, we detected comparable biological activities in functional assays reflecting the regenerative potential of the secretomes. Taken together, we were able to demonstrate that electron-irradiation is an effective, alternative radiation source for producing therapeutic, cell-free secretomes. Our study paves the way for future clinical trials employing secretomes generated with electron-irradiation in tissue-regenerative medicine.

Low Repair Capacity of DNA Double-Strand Breaks Induced by Laser-Driven Ultrashort Electron Beams in Cancer Cells.

Laser-driven accelerators allow to generate ultrashort (from femto- to picoseconds) high peak dose-rate (up to tens of GGy/s) accelerated particle beams. However, the radiobiological effects of ultrashort pulsed irradiation are still poorly studied. The aim of this work was to compare the formation and elimination of γH2AX and 53BP1 foci (well known markers for DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs)) in Hela cells exposed to ultrashort pulsed electron beams generated by Advanced Research Electron Accelerator Laboratory (AREAL) accelerator (electron energy 3.6 MeV, pulse duration 450 fs, pulse repetition rates 2 or 20 Hz) and quasi-continuous radiation generated by Varian accelerator (electron energy 4 MeV) at doses of 250–1000 mGy. Additionally, a study on the dose–response relationships of changes in the number of residual γH2AX foci in HeLa and A549 cells 24 h after irradiation at doses of 500–10,000 mGy were performed. We found no statistically significant differences in γH2AX and 53BP1 foci yields at 1 h after exposure to 2 Hz ultrashort pulse vs. quasi-continuous radiations. In contrast, 20 Hz ultrashort pulse irradiation resulted in 1.27-fold higher foci yields as compared to the quasi-continuous one. After 24 h of pulse irradiation at doses of 500–10,000 mGy the number of residual γH2AX foci in Hela and A549 cells was 1.7–2.9 times higher compared to that of quasi-continuous irradiation. Overall, the obtained results suggest the slower repair rate for DSBs induced by ultrashort pulse irradiation in comparison to DSBs induced by quasi-continuous irradiation.

Single-shot spatial-temporal electric field measurement of intense terahertz pulses from coherent transition radiation

Coherent transition radiation (CTR) is a widely used approach to characterize the electron beam in accelerator science and technology. Characterization of the CTR with an efficient, versatile and compact setup is in considerable demand for a wide range of applications such as free electron lasers, electron storage rings and other related scientific researches. In this article, we report on spatial-temporal electric field measurements of CTR using the single-shot electro-optic spatial decoding method. A quasi-half-cycle temporal waveform of the THz pulse with peak electric field strength of $\ensuremath{\sim}42\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MV}/\mathrm{m}$ has been measured. A symmetrical field profile across the transverse center and the distorted wave front of CTR THz pulses near the focal plane were demonstrated. Moreover, timing jitters of the ultrashort electron beams are also monitored via this method with tens of femtosecond accuracy. This comprehensive method provides the temporal waveform and the one-dimensional spatial imaging of THz fields simultaneously, showing it has the potential for single-shot diagnostics of ultrashort electron beams.

Enhanced Self-Seeding with Ultrashort Electron Beams.

We describe a new method to produce intensity stable, highly coherent, narrow-band x-ray pulses in self-seeded free electron (FEL) lasers. The approach uses an ultrashort electron beam to generate a single spike FEL pulse with a wide coherent bandwidth. The self-seeding monochromator then notches out a narrow spectral region of this pulse to be amplified by a long portion of electron beam to full saturation. In contrast to typical self-seeding where monochromatization of noisy self-amplified spontaneous emission pulses leads to either large intensity fluctuations or multiple frequencies, we show that this method produces a stable, coherent FEL output pulse with statistical properties similar to a fully coherent optical laser.

Breaking 50 Femtosecond Resolution Barrier in MeV Ultrafast Electron Diffraction with a Double Bend Achromat Compressor.

We propose and demonstrate a novel scheme to produce ultrashort and ultrastable MeV electron beam. In this scheme, the electron beam produced in a photocathode radio frequency (rf) gun first expands under its own Coulomb force with which a positive energy chirp is imprinted in the beam longitudinal phase space. The beam is then sent through a double bend achromat with positive longitudinal dispersion where electrons at the bunch tail with lower energies follow shorter paths and thus catch up with the bunch head, leading to longitudinal bunch compression. We show that with optimized parameter sets, the whole beam path from the electron source to the compression point can be made isochronous such that the time of flight for the electron beam is immune to the fluctuations of rf amplitude. With a laser-driven THz deflector, the bunch length and arrival time jitter for a 20fC beam after bunch compression are measured to be about 29fs (FWHM) and 22fs (FWHM), respectively. Such an ultrashort and ultrastable electron beam allows us to achieve 50 femtosecond (FWHM) resolution in MeV ultrafast electron diffraction where lattice oscillation at 2.6THz corresponding to Bismuth A_{1g} mode is clearly observed without correcting both the short-term timing jitter and long-term timing drift. Furthermore, oscillating weak diffuse scattering signal related to phonon coupling and decay is also clearly resolved thanks to the improved temporal resolution and increased electron flux. We expect that this technique will have a strong impact in emerging ultrashort electron beam based facilities and applications.