Thesis
Very high energy electrons radiotherapy with beams from a wakefield accelerator
Radiation-matter interactions
Numerical simulation
Research objectives:
Use numerical modelling to optimize the properties of laser-plasma accelerators in the 50 MeV-200 MeV range for VHEE radiotherapy:
(i) optimize the properties of a laser-plasma accelerator (energy spread, divergence) with electron beams injected from a plasma-mirror injector using the WarpX and HiPACE++ codes.
(ii) Study the impact of such electron beams on DNA using Geant4DNA.
This numerical modelling will then be used to guide/design/interpret experiments of radiobiology on in-vitro biological samples that are planned at our in-house 100 TW laser facility at CEA during the project. This will be carried out in the context of research project FemtoDose funded by the French National Research Agency.
The researcher will benefit from a large variety of training available at CEA on HPC and computer programming as well as training at our industrial partners (ARM, Eviden) and Université Paris Saclay, which has MSc courses in radiobiology and also hosts a research centre (INanoTherad) dedicated to novel radiotherapy treatments, gathering physicists, radiobiologists and medical doctors. The activities will be carried out in the framework of the Marie Sklodowska Curie Action Doctoral Network EPACE (European compact accelerators, their applications, and entrepreneurship)
Use numerical modelling to optimize the properties of laser-plasma accelerators in the 50 MeV-200 MeV range for VHEE radiotherapy:
(i) optimize the properties of a laser-plasma accelerator (energy spread, divergence) with electron beams injected from a plasma-mirror injector using the WarpX and HiPACE++ codes.
(ii) Study the impact of such electron beams on DNA using Geant4DNA.
This numerical modelling will then be used to guide/design/interpret experiments of radiobiology on in-vitro biological samples that are planned at our in-house 100 TW laser facility at CEA during the project. This will be carried out in the context of research project FemtoDose funded by the French National Research Agency.
The researcher will benefit from a large variety of training available at CEA on HPC and computer programming as well as training at our industrial partners (ARM, Eviden) and Université Paris Saclay, which has MSc courses in radiobiology and also hosts a research centre (INanoTherad) dedicated to novel radiotherapy treatments, gathering physicists, radiobiologists and medical doctors. The activities will be carried out in the framework of the Marie Sklodowska Curie Action Doctoral Network EPACE (European compact accelerators, their applications, and entrepreneurship)
SL-DRF-25-0508
Ecole d’ingénieur et/ou MSc physique théorique physique des plasmas
May 1 2025
Paris-Saclay
Ondes et Matière (EDOM)
Saclay
CEA
Direction de la Recherche Fondamentale
Institut rayonnement et matière de Saclay
Service Laboratoire Interactions, Dynamique et Lasers
Physique à Haute Intensité