Laser wakefield electron accelerator: possible use for radioisotope production

Electron beams generated by laser wakefield acceleration can induce a photoneutron reaction to convert
¹⁰⁰
Mo into
⁹⁹
Mo. Multi-pC, several-MeV electron beams, obtained from particle-in-cell simulations, could generate bremsstrahlung gamma photons within the absorption region of the photonuclear reaction. The efficiency of this process is estimated for a laser accelerator operating at kHz repetition rate in the self-modulated regime. The electron beam kinetic energy must be improved to 40MeV. To meet the typical consumption of
⁹⁹
Mo per patient within its decay timescale, this efficiency must be increased by three orders of magnitude.