Design of a compact beam transport system for laser-driven proton therapy

We put forward a new design of a compact beam transport system for intense laser-driven proton therapy, where instead of using conventional pulsed solenoids, our design relies on a helical coil irradiated by a nanosecond laser pulse to generate strong magnetic fields for focusing protons. A pair of dipole magnets and apertures are employed to further filter protons with large divergences and low energies. Our numerical studies combine particle-in-cell simulations for laser-plasma interaction to generate high-energy monoenergetic proton beams,finite element analysis for evaluating the magnetic field distribution inside the coil, and MonteCarlo simulations for beam transport and energy deposition. Our results show that with this design,a spread-out Bragg peak in a range of several centimeters to a deep-seated tumor with a dose of approximately 16.5 cGy and fluctuation around 2% can be achieved. The instantaneous dose rate reaches up to 10～9 Gy/s, holding the potential for future FLASH radiotherapy research.