Dosimetric Optimization of a Laser-Driven Irradiation Facility Using the G4-ELIMED Application

ELIMED has been developed and installed at ELI beamlines as a part of the ELIMAIA beamline to transport, monitor, and use laser-driven ion beams suitable for multidisciplinary applications, including biomedical ones. This paper aims to investigate the feasibility to perform radiobiological experiments using laser-accelerated proton beams with intermediate energies (up to 30 MeV). To reach this goal, we simulate a proton source based on experimental data like the ones expected to be available in the first phase of ELIMED commissioning by using the G4-ELIMED application (an application based on the Geant4 toolkit that simulates the full ELIMED beamline). This allows the study of transmission efficiency and the final characteristics of the proton beam at the sample irradiation point. The Energy Selector System is used as an active energy modulator to obtain the desired beam features in a relatively short irradiation time (around 6 min). Furthermore, we demonstrate the capability of the beamline to filter out other ion contaminants, typically co-accelerated in a laser-plasma environment. These results can be considered as a detailed feasibility study for the use of ELIMED for various user applications such as radiobiological experiments with ultrahigh dose rate proton beams.