Luca Labate

• PhD
• Senior Researcher at Italian National Research Council

We present 50-fs, single-shot measurements of the x-ray thermal diffuse scattering (TDS) from copper foils that have been shocked via nanosecond laser ablation up to pressures above ∼ 135 GPa. We hence deduce the x-ray Debye–Waller factor, providing a temperature measurement. The targets were laser-shocked with the DiPOLE 100-X laser at the High En...

Fast electron generation and transport in high-intensity laser–solid interactions induces X-ray emission and drives ion acceleration. Effective production of these sources hinges on an efficient laser absorption into the fast electron population and control of divergence as the beam propagates through the target. Nanowire targets can be employed to...

The use of very high energy electron (VHEE) beams, with energies between 50 and 400 MeV, has drawn considerable interest in radiotherapy due to their deep tissue penetration, sharp beam edges, and low sensitivity to tissue density. VHEE beams can be precisely steered with magnetic components, positioning VHEE therapy as a cost-effective option betw...

We present 50-fs, single-shot measurements of the x-ray thermal diffuse scattering (TDS) from copper foils that have been shocked via nanosecond laser-ablation up to pressures above 135~GPa. We hence deduce the x-ray Debye-Waller (DW) factor, providing a temperature measurement. The targets were laser-shocked with the DiPOLE 100-X laser at the High...

The use of Very High Energy Electron (VHEE) beams, with energies between 50 and 400 MeV, has drawn considerable interest in radiotherapy due to their deep tissue penetration, sharp beam edges, and low sensitivity to tissue density. VHEE beams can be precisely steered with magnetic components, positioning VHEE therapy as a cost-effective option betw...

Particle-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) is a well-established ion-beam analysis technique, enabling quantitative measurement of the elemental composition of a sample surface under an ambient atmosphere with an external beam, which significantly simplifies the measurements, and is strictly necessary for those samples that cannot sustain a vacuum envi...

X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) sources coupled to high-power laser systems offer an avenue to study the structural dynamics of materials at extreme pressures and temperatures. The recent commissioning of the DiPOLE 100-X laser on the high energy density (HED) instrument at the European XFEL represents the state-of-the-art in combining x-ray diffr...

Major strides have been made in the development of FLASH radiotherapy (FLASH RT) in the last ten years, but there are still many obstacles to overcome for transfer to the clinic to become a reality. Although preclinical and first-in-human clinical evidence suggests that ultra-high dose rates (UHDRs) induce a sparing effect in normal tissue without...

Electron plasma waves can be efficiently excited by a resonant train of ultrashort pulses, spatially separated by a plasma wavelength. Generating a pulse train from a single amplified ultrashort pulse may be challenging when dealing with large beams. Here we discuss a pulse splitting technique using a simple delay mask that can be adapted to large...

The next years will see the completion of several new facilities at Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare – Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS) opening up new possibilities in the fields of nuclear structure, nuclear dynamics, nuclear astrophysics and applications. These include a new line for high-intensity cyclotron beams, a new facility for in-fl...

A model for the calculation of the pump energy coupling to a disk amplifier is presented. The disk is considered to be pumped on its edge by diode bars. A composite geometry, namely a disk with a doped (pump absorbing) inner region surrounded by an undoped region is considered. The model allows the overall pump energy coupling as well as the absorp...

While the long-term vision of the advanced accelerator community is aimed at addressing the challenges of future collider technology, it is critical that the community takes advantage of the opportunity to make large societal impact through its near-term applications. In turn, enabling robust applications strengthens the quality, control, and relia...

We report on the conceptual design of a 2 μm, broadband laser multipass amplifier system based on Tm-doped gain medium, including an overview of the model established to optimize the performance of a diode edge-pumped high-power solid-state thin-disk configuration.

Purpose Flash radiotherapy (FLASH-RT) is currently being regarded as the next breakthrough in radiation treatment of cancer, delivering ultrahigh radiation doses in a very short time, and sparing normal tissues from detrimental injury. Here we review the current evidence on the preclinical findings as well as the radiobiological mechanisms underlyi...

After the introduction of the ionization-injection scheme in laser wake field acceleration and of related high-quality electron beam generation methods, such as two-color and resonant multi-pulse ionization injection (ReMPI), the theory of thermal emittance has been used to predict the beam normalized emittance obtainable with those schemes. We rec...

After the introduction of the ionization-injection scheme in Laser Wake Field Acceleration and of related high-quality electron beam generation methods as two-color or the Resonant Multi Pulse Ionization injection, the theory of thermal emittance by C. Schroeder et al, has been used to predict the beam normalised emittance obtainable with those sch...

Proton laser-plasma-based acceleration has nowadays achieved a substantial maturity allowing to seek for possible practical applications, as for example Particle Induced X-ray Emission with few MeV protons. Here we report about the design, implementation, and characterization of a few MeV laser-plasma-accelerated proton beamline in air using a comp...

The interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with solids is largely affected by the plasma gradient at the vacuum–solid interface, which modifies the absorption and ultimately, controls the energy distribution function of heated electrons. A micrometer scale-length plasma has been predicted to yield a significant enhancement of the energy and weigh...

The coupling of ultra-intense, ultra-short laser pulses with solid targets is heavily dependent on the properties of the vacuum–solid interface and is usually quite low. However, laser absorption can be enhanced via micro or nanopatterning of the target surface. Depending on the laser features and target geometry, conditions can be optimized for th...

The interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with solids is largely affected by the plasma gradient at the vacuum-solid interface, which modifies the absorption and ultimately, controls the energy distribution function of heated electrons. A micrometer scale-length plasma has been predicted to yield a significant enhancement of the energy and weigh...

The interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with solids is largely affected by the plasma gradient at the vacuum-solid interface, which modifies the absorption and ultimately, controls the energy distribution function of heated electrons. A micrometer scale-length plasma has been predicted to yield a significant enhancement of the energy and weigh...

The design, realization and test of a few-MeV proton-laser–based source to be used for PIXE measurements at atmospheric pressure are reported. The system comprises a 14 TW 30 fs laser system, a motorized laser-plasma target holder and a compact magnetic beam line designed using GEANT4 simulation tools. During the experimental tests the transported...

We report on the optimization of a BremsStrahlung Cannon (BSC) design for the investigation of laser-driven fast electron populations in a shock ignition relevant experimental campaign at the Laser Megajoule-PETawatt Aquitaine Laser facility. In this regime with laser intensities of 10¹⁵ W/cm²–10¹⁶ W/cm², fast electrons with energies ≤100 keV are e...

We present the main features of the ultrashort, high-intensity laser installation at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL) including laser, beam transport and target area specifications. The laboratory was designed to host laser–target interaction experiments of more than 220 TW peak power, in flexible focusing configurations, with ultrar...

Trains of femtosecond pulses generated by a delay mask are considered for application to laser driven acceleration of particles. Here we show the results of numerical simulations and a preliminary experimental characterization of a two-pulse configuration.

We describe the initial development of an edge-pumped ceramic Tm:Lu2O3 multipass amplifier for ultra-short pulse laser with high-repetition rate, high-peak power and high-average power, with an overview of the laser chain and the amplifiers specifications

This report presents the conceptual design of a new European research infrastructure EuPRAXIA. The concept has been established over the last four years in a unique collaboration of 41 laboratories within a Horizon 2020 design study funded by the European Union. EuPRAXIA is the first European project that develops a dedicated particle accelerator r...

This report presents the conceptual design of a new European research infrastructure EuPRAXIA. The concept has been established over the last four years in a unique collaboration of 41 laboratories within a Horizon 2020 design study funded by the European Union. EuPRAXIA is the first European project that develops a dedicated particle accelerator r...

Figure 20.1 was not correct in the published article. The original article has been corrected. The published apologizes for the inconvenience.

Radiotherapy with very high energy electrons has been investigated for a couple of decades as an effective approach to improve dose distribution compared to conventional photon-based radiotherapy, with the recent intriguing potential of high dose-rate irradiation. Its practical application to treatment has been hindered by the lack of hospital-scal...

In this paper we report the measurement of laser-driven proton acceleration obtained by irradiating nanotube array targets with ultrashort laser pulses at an intensity in excess of 10²⁰ W cm⁻². The energetic spectra of forward accelerated protons show a larger flux and a higher proton cutoff energy if compared to flat foils of comparable thickness....

We show that both the flux and the cutoff energy of protons accelerated by ultraintense lasers can besimultaneously increased when using targets consisting of thin layers of bundled nanochannels. Particle-in-cellsimulations suggest that the propagation of an electromagnetic field in the subwavelength channels occurs viaexcitation of surface plasmon...

We report on recent experimental results on proton acceleration from laser interaction with foil targets at ultra-relativistic intensities. We show a three-fold increase in the proton cut-off energy when a micrometer scale-length pre-plasma is introduced by irradiation with a low energy femtosecond pre-pulse. The foil target is sufficiently thick t...

We describe the latest progress towards the development of a laser-produced proton beam line for Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) applications. The specific aim of the project is the design, realization and test of a compact laser-based source of a few MeV protons to be used for PIXE measurements at atmospheric pressure.

In the Shock Ignition scheme, the spike pulse intensity is well above the threshold of parametric instabilities, which produce a considerable amount of hot electrons that could be beneficial or detrimental to the ignition. To study their impact, an experiment has been carried out on the LMJ-PETAL facility with a goal to generate a strong shock insi...

Flowing plasma jets are increasingly investigated and used for surface treatments, including biological matter, and as soft ionization sources for mass spectrometry. They have the characteristic capability to transport energy from the plasma excitation region to the flowing afterglow, and therefore to a distant application surface, in a controlled...

High-repetition rate target development for proton acceleration by laser-plasma experiments is of great importance for future multidisciplinary applications, as envisioned at the ELIMAIA user beamline. The use of gas-jet based target, capable of high-repetition rate (10Hz and beyond) and typically used to generate under-critical density plasma, can...

Laser wakefield acceleration of GeV electrons is becoming a mature technique, so that a reliable accelerator delivering stable beams to users communities can now be considered. In such a context, two plasma stages, one injector and one booster stage, offer a flexible solution for optimization. For the injector we consider here the resonant multipul...

The Horizon 2020 project EuPRAXIA (European Plasma Research Accelerator with eXcellence In Applications) is producing a conceptual design report for a highly compact and cost-effective European facility with multi-GeV electron beams accelerated using plasmas. EuPRAXIA will be set up as a distributed Open Innovation platform with two construction si...

The EuPRAXIA project aims at designing the world's first accelerator based on advanced plasma-wakefield techniques to deliver 5 GeV electron beams that simultaneously have high charge, low emittance and low energy spread, which are required for applications by future user communities. Meeting this challenging objective will only be possible through...

Novel accelerator schemes are rapidly emerging in the wake of laser-plasma acceleration research and involve advanced high-power laser drivers for their operation. Significant progress has been made in laser performance during the past decade, including repetition rate, average and peak power, and footprint, making these systems attractive for many...

The production of high-quality electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration relies on the possibility of injecting ultra-low emittance bunches in the plasma wave. A new bunch injection scheme (resonant multi-pulse ionization, ReMPI) has been conceived and studied, in which electrons extracted by ionization are trapped by a large-amplitude plasm...

Plasma accelerators present one of the most suitable candidates for the development of more compact particle acceleration technologies, yet they still lag behind radiofrequency (RF)-based devices when it comes to beam quality, control, stability and power efficiency. The Horizon 2020-funded project EuPRAXIA (“European Plasma Research Accelerator wi...

In this Chapter, an introductive overview of the experimental methods to characterize an ultrashort laser pulse will be given. Great attention will be paid to the measurement of their time behaviour; this encompasses both the time profile and the pulse contrast. A formal introduction to the mathematical description of an ultrashort Ultrashort pulse...

The purpose of the European project EuPRAXIA is to realize a novel plasma accelerator user facility. The laser driven approach sets requirements for a very high performance level for the laser system: pulse peak power in the petawatt range, pulse repetition rate of several tens of Hz, very high beam quality and overall stability of the system param...

In this work we present the response of a new large volume 4H Silicon Carbide (SiC) detector to 14 MeV neutrons. The device has an active thickness of 100μm (obtained by epitaxial growing) and an active area of 25 mm². Tests were conducted at the ENEA-Frascati Neutron Generator facility by using 14.1 MeV neutrons. The SiC detector performance was c...

Accurate dynamic three-dimensional (4D) imaging of the heart of small rodents is required for the preclinical study of cardiac biomechanics and their modification under pathological conditions, but technological challenges are met in laboratory practice due to the very small size and high pulse rate of the heart of mice and rats as compared to huma...

A study of the response of three ΔE-E telescopes to fragments produced in nuclear interactions at 40AMeV is presented. All the employed telescopes feature silicon carbide (SiC) detectors for at least one detection stage. Two identification methods have been used and their performance discussed: the ΔE-E technique and the Pulse Shape Analysis techni...

Purpose All-optical, laser-driven X/gamma-ray sources, based on the primary electron acceleration via the Laser WakeField Acceleration (LWFA) process, have now entered a mature phase in terms of beam parameters, shot-to-shot stability, and reliability, so as to be considered as promising tools in medical physics. The high electron acceleration grad...

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a compound semiconductor, which is considered as a possible alternative to silicon for particles and photons detection. Its characteristics make it very promising for the next generation of nuclear and particle physics experiments at high beam luminosity. Silicon Carbide detectors for Intense Luminosity Investigations and A...

A study of the structure of the electric and magnetic fields of ultraintense laser pulses focused by an off-axis parabolic mirror is reported. At first, a theoretical model is laid out, whose final equations integration allows the space and time structure of the fields to be retrieved. The model is then employed to investigate the field patterns at...

This work aim to prepare a program of studies on nuclear physics and astrophysics, which will be conducted at the new ELI-NP Laser facility, which actually is under construction in Bucharest, Romania. For the arguments treated, such activity has required also a multidisciplinary approach and knowledge in the fields of nuclear physics, astrophysics,...

The construction of a novel Laser driven Light Ions Acceleration Line(L3IA) is progressing rapidly towards the operation, following the recent upgrade of the ILIL-PW laser facility. The Line was designed following the pilot experimental activity carried out earlier at the same facility to define design parameters and to identify main components inc...

The construction of a novel Laser driven Light Ions Acceleration Line(L3IA) is progressing rapidly towards the operation, following the recent upgrade of the ILIL-PW laser facility. The Line was designed following the pilot experimental activity carried out earlier at the same facility to define design parameters and to identify main components inc...

Recently a new injection scheme for Laser Wake Field Acceleration, employing a single 100-TW-class laser system, has been proposed. In the Resonant Multi-Pulse Ionization injection (ReMPI) a resonant train of pulses drives a large amplitude plasma wave that traps electrons extracted from the plasma by further ionization of a high-Z dopant (Argon in...

Recently a new injection scheme for Laser Wake Field Acceleration, employing a single 100-TW-class laser system, has been proposed. In the Resonant Multi-Pulse Ionization injection (ReMPI) a resonant train of pulses drives a large amplitude plasma wave that traps electrons extracted from the plasma by further ionization of a high-Z dopant (Argon in...

Recently a new injection scheme for Laser Wake Field Acceleration, employing a single 100-TW-class laser system, has been proposed. In the Resonant Multi-Pulse Ionization injection (ReMPI) a resonant train of pulses drives a large amplitude plasma wave that traps electrons extracted from the plasma by further ionization of a high-Z dopant (Argon in...

The construction of a novel user facility employing laser-driven plasma acceleration with superior beam quality will require an industrial grade, high repetition rate petawatt laser driver which is beyond existing technology. However, with the ongoing fast development of chirped pulse amplification and high average power laser technology, options c...

The construction of a novel user facility employing laser-driven plasma acceleration with superior beam quality will require an industrial grade, high repetition rate petawatt laser driver which is beyond existing technology. However, with the ongoing fast development of chirped pulse amplification and high average power laser technology, options c...

A new method for the generation of a train of pulses from a single high-energy, ultra short pulse is presented, suited for Resonant Multi-Pulse Ionization injection. The method is based on different transverse portion of the pulse being delayed by a "mask" sectioned in concentric zones with different thicknesses, in order to deliver multiple laser...

A new method for the generation of a train of pulses from a single high-energy, ultra short pulse is presented, suited for Resonant Multi-Pulse Ionization injection. The method is based on different transverse portion of the pulse being delayed by a "mask" sectioned in concentric zones with different thicknesses, in order to deliver multiple laser...

On the wake of the results obtained so far at the SPARC\_LAB test-facility at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (Italy), we are currently investigating the possibility to design and build a new multi-disciplinary user-facility, equipped with a soft X-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL) driven by a $\sim$1 GeV high brightness linac based on plasma acce...

On the wake of the results obtained so far at the SPARC\_LAB test-facility at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (Italy), we are currently investigating the possibility to design and build a new multi-disciplinary user-facility, equipped with a soft X-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL) driven by a $\sim$1 GeV high brightness linac based on plasma acce...

The transport of hot, relativistic electrons produced by the interaction of an intense petawatt laser pulse with a solid has garnered interest due to its potential application in the development of innovative x-ray sources and ion-acceleration schemes. We report on spatially and temporally resolved measurements of megagauss magnetic fields at the r...

The production of high-quality electron bunches in Laser Wake Field Acceleration relies on the possibility to inject ultra-low emittance bunches in the plasma wave. In this paper, we present a new bunch injection scheme in which electrons extracted by ionization are trapped by a large-amplitude plasma wave driven by a train of resonant ultrashort p...

The aims of our work was to design, study and optimize the main characteristics of an X-ray bremsstrahlung source based on a laser-driven electron beam accelerated via Laser Wake-Field Acceleration. This study is performed using a custom Monte Carlo-Geant4 application, called IORT-Laser-therapy. The X-ray source is designed on top of the laser-driv...

In this paper, we present the status of the line for laser-driven light ions acceleration (L3IA) currently under implementation at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL), and we provide an overview of the pilot experimental activity on laser-driven ion acceleration carried out in support of the design of the line. A description of the main...

The production of high-quality electron bunches in Laser Wake Field Acceleration relies on the possibility to inject ultra-low emittance bunches in the plasma wave. In this paper we present a new bunch injection scheme in which electrons extracted by ionization are trapped by a large-amplitude plasma wave driven by a train of resonant ultrashort pu...

The Horizon 2020 Project EuPRAXIA ("European Plasma Research Accelerator with eXcellence In Applications") is preparing a conceptual design report of a highly compact and cost-effective European facility with multi-GeV electron beams using plasma as the acceleration medium. The accelerator facility will be based on a laser and/or a beam driven plas...

Laser Wake Field accelerated electrons need to exhibit a good beam-quality to comply with requirements of FEL or high brilliance Thomson Scattering sources, or to be post-accelerated in a further LWFA stage towards TeV energy scale. Controlling electron injection, plasma density profile and laser pulse evolution are therefore crucial tasks for high...

High-power lasers allow to produce plasmas extremely appealing for the nuclear physics studies. An intense scientific program is under preparation for the experiments that will be conducted at the Extreme Light Infrastructure for Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) in Magurele, Romania. Among the several planned activities, we aim to study low-energy fusion r...

We report measurements of parametric instabilities and hot electron generation in a laser intensity regime up to 6 × 10¹⁵ W/cm², typical of the shock ignition approach to inertial fusion. Experiments performed at the PALS laboratory in Prague show that the incident laser energy losses are dominated by Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) rather th...

A general procedure is described to calculate the intensity and Strehl ratio, at a generic plane in the focal region, of a beam focused by an off-axis parabolic mirror in the presence of small misalignments. The general theoretical framework is first developed, which allows a full vector diffraction treatment in the case of general misalignments. T...

Laser-driven electron accelerators are capable of producing high-energy electron bunches in shorter distances than conventional radiofrequency accelerators. To date, our knowledge of the radiobiological effects in cells exposed to electrons using a laser-plasma accelerator is still very limited. In this study, we compared the dose-response curves f...

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 109 Gy s-1. The...