AISHa: an ECRIS for nuclear-physics, new clinical protocols and material experiments

Abstract

The Advanced Ion Source for Hadrontherapy (AISHa) is an ECR ion source operating at 18 GHz, developed with the aim to produce multiply charged ion beams with low ripple, high stability and reproducibility. Due to its unique peculiarity, it is the most suitable choice for medical applications, but also for nuclear-physics and material experiments. Two sources have been realized: the first at INFN-LNS and the second at the Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO). The first one, fully commissioned at INFN-LNS, will be used as test-bench for development of new beams and several R&D activities are planned within the IONS experiment to increase plasma confinement and to refine techniques of non-invasive plasma diagnostics to correlate plasma and beam parameters. The second one recently produced the first beam and it will allow to increase the CNAO potential in the field of experimental and industrial research, with the long-term goal of introducing new ionic species into clinical practice such as helium, oxygen and later also iron and lithium, useful for bio-spatial research. In this work, the key peculiarities and the experimental results of the two Aisha ion sources will be presented.