Industrial applications of laser-induced electron and ion-beams

Laser-plasma acceleration techniques are applied to fabricate compact radiation sources having wide application possibilities. The advantage claimed for the laser-induced radiation is the possible production of highly energetic particles (electrons and ions of the energy larger than ∼MeV) in extremely short-time duration or in small region with low emittance (as beam like). Laser pulses of 100fs width and 1018 W/cm2 or larger intensity are focused into a gas jet to produce a plasma of the electron density of 1018 to 1020 cm-3 where electrons are accelerated by a plasma-wake potential. Emitted electrons from behind a laser-irradiated thin foil extract ions from the plasma in the foil. The paper draws attention to conventional ion-beam applications to surface treatment and also to present status of laser techniques before describing the author's expectation of applications of ∼10TW laser-induced radiations, such as electron beams of the energy higher than 10MeV for radiation sterilization and ion-beams for surface treatment. (S. Ohno)