Proton, electron And Neutron sources for non-destructive Testing ANd Investigations and treatment of materials

The main goal of the PANTANI project is to complete the design of an innovative laser-driven radiation source suitable for applications in materials science, inspection and treatment, as well as the development of some of its key components. Accelerators are exploited to produce particles and radiation needed for applications of high industrial and social relevance, like analysis of objects of historical, artistic and environmental interest, sterilisation of medical instrumentation, inspection of cargos and goods. Large-scale diffusion of these applications is prevented by the intrinsic limits of the available particle sources in terms of costs, dimensions and flexibility. In this frame, laser-driven particle sources represent an appealing solution to overcome these limitations. They are potentially cheaper and more compact compared to conventional accelerators. Moreover, they can provide several kinds of particles to perform multiple applications with the same source. These novel sources are subject to active research, but no industrial applications are currently available. Starting from the results obtained with the ERC CoG ENSURE and ERC PoC INTER projects, PANTANI aims to address key aspects, never considered before, to develop a laser-driven particle source dedicated for the applications: 1) the development of an application-oriented design of the entire acceleration system; 2) the identification of commercial laser solutions compatible with the source requirements; 3) the production and test of a prototype radiation detector; 4) radiation protection assessment of the designed system, also from the legislative point of view. All these results achieved by exploiting the expertise from both academy (Politecnico di Milano, Host Institution) and industry (the RayLAB and SourceLAB partners) will allow bridging the gap between fundamental research and the development of a realistic, multi-purpose laser-driven particle source suitable for applications.