A laser-based hadrontherapy facility: current status at HZDR

Laser based ion acceleration has the potential to serve as a more flexible solution as compared to conventional ion beam therapies. In order to explore these potentials, several groups from physics, biology and medicine have joint forces in Dresden.
This talk will give an overview over the activities focusing especially on the proton source and the beam transport. The Ti:Sapph laser system was upgraded to 500TW in order to produce higher energies and starts operation this summer. Additionally, new target types such as solid hydrogen and liquid crystals where tested. For beam transport novel techniques with pulsed power magnets producing field of up to 20 Tesla are implemented.