The Medical and Laser Physics Group of Infn-Lns

29/05/2026

29/05/2026

Dear Colleagues,

we are glad to invite you to participate to the 7th European Conference on Plasma Diagnostics (ECPD 2027), which will be held on 9th-14th May 2027 in Pisa (Italy).

The conference, organized by the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL) at INO-CNR in Pisa, will bring together scientists & engineers working on plasma diagnostics for magnetic confinement fusion, inertial confinement fusion, beam plasmas, low-temperature and industrial plasmas as well as space and astrophysical plasmas.

For more details, visit the web site of the conference www.ecpd-conference.com, which will be enriched with relevant information in next months.

We look forward to seeing you all in Pisa in 2027.

With our warmest wishes,

the ILIL team

27/05/2026

26/05/2026

🥳 A special shout-out to the very first student who started the plasma studies in the plasma lab of the I-LUCE facility with the capillary discharge system—your early work lit the spark!

⚡️ The first plasma using an electrical discharge in a hydrogen-filled capillary tube has been successfully generated, marking the first step toward electron beams for advanced radiotherapy—specifically Very High Energy Electron (VHEE) therapy.

🔬This plasma, once characterised, will become the main medium to accelerate electron beams for medical applications inside the I-LUCE (INFN Laser iUCEd radiation production) facility. I-LUCE is growing day by day, especially in electron acceleration using plasma and toward the ANTHEM (PNRR) & EuAPS Infrastructure. Meanwhile, our students are actively working on the setup: they have seen the entire plasma generation system, taken photos of the setup and the plasma itself, and performed measurements on plasma current, electric field, and plasma intensity across three series of tests with different operators varying the voltage.

☺️ Thanks to ANTHEM (https://fondazioneanthem.it/) to INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud and to INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and plasma team for pushing forward this project and activity, especially Dr. Sahar Arjamnd and Dr. Alberto Sciuto.

22/05/2026

We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the Site Acceptance Tests (SAT) of the new Electron FLASH SIT platform installed at CAPIR – University of Catania. This important milestone was achieved through the collaboration between INFN-LNS (Giacomo Cuttone, Giada Petringa, Roberto Catalano), CNR-IBSBC (Giorgio Russo), UNICT (Rosalba Parenti, Giovanni Li Volti) and Cannizzaro Hospital (Mariagabriella Sabini, Annalisa Muscato), within the framework of the Pilot 4.4 of ANTHEM – AdvaNced Technologies for Human-centrEd Medicine project
The system will enable irradiations in Electron FLASH mode, an emerging frontier in radiation therapy based on ultra-high dose rate (UHDR) beam delivery, with the potential to spare healthy tissues while maintaining high tumour control effectiveness. The INFN-LNS dosimetry group played a key role in the characterization and dosimetric commissioning activities of the machine, including beam parameter verification, absolute and relative dosimetry, and validation of FLASH operational conditions required for upcoming radiobiological studies.
With the successful completion of the SAT activities, the facility is now ready for in vitro and in vivo irradiation campaigns aimed at investigating the FLASH effect, one of the most innovative and promising topics in modern radiobiology research. This achievement represents a further step forward in the development of advanced technologies for radiation therapy and in strengthening the Sicilian research infrastructure in medical physics, radiobiology, and biomedical applications of ionizing radiation.

17/05/2026

Very proud to see the cover of the August 2025 issue of The European Physical Journal Plus (EPJ+) featuring images from our recent roadmap paper on laser-driven radiation, radiobiology and dosimetry at ELI-ERIC.

The article, “From ultrafast laser-generated radiation to clinical impact: a roadmap for radiobiology and cancer research at the extreme light infrastructure (ELI)”, represents an important international effort toward the future of laser-driven particle beams for biomedical applications and next-generation radiotherapy.

We are particularly proud for having contributed as proposer and second authors to this work, which highlights the growing scientific relevance of research activities in radiobiology and dosimetry carried out within the ELI-ERIC framework and strongly connected to the future developments at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud with the I-LUCE high-power laser infrastructure.

This recognition confirms the high international interest in the activities that are already ongoing — and those that will be developed in the coming years — on laser-driven particle sources, FLASH radiotherapy, ultrafast dosimetry, and advanced biomedical applications.

A great achievement made possible thanks to the collaboration between many excellent researchers and institutions across Europe. INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud ELI Beamlines ELI - The Extreme Light Infrastructure

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06662-w

15/05/2026

A major milestone for INFN-LNS and for the future I-LUCE facility has been achieved.

The first laser system — an Astrella Ti:Sapphire laser delivering 9 mJ, 34 fs pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate — has now been successfully installed and commissioned at INFN-LNS.

The system was funded within the Italian PNRR National Health Ecosystem project ANTHEM (AdvaNced Technologies for Human-centrEd Medicine), supporting the development of new technologies for advanced radiation sources and biomedical applications. It was also supported by the EuAPS Infrastructure PNNR for the building realisation.

Our next step will be the compression of the laser pulses down to the few-cycle regime (~6 fs), enabling new experimental opportunities in ultrafast laser–matter interaction and high-repetition-rate plasma physics.

Most importantly, this laser will allow, for the first time in the history of INFN-LNS, the generation of in-house electron beams through laser-plasma acceleration, reaching energies up to about 6 MeV.

These electron beams will not only represent a completely new capability for the laboratory, but will also open the door to a new class of applications thanks to their unique properties: ultra-short bunch duration (~15 fs), extremely high peak current, and ultrahigh dose-rate delivery.

The first laser-accelerated electron beams at INFN-LNS are expected within the first half of 2027.

This achievement will pave the way for advanced studies in FLASH radiotherapy, ultrafast imaging, radiation–matter interactions, and next-generation compact particle acceleration.

This marks only the first phase of the I-LUCE activities, and exciting developments in laser–plasma physics are expected at INFN-LNS in the coming years.

Thank you to ANTHEM (https://fondazioneanthem.it/) to INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud and to INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare

05/05/2026

🚨 Last call for abstracts!

The RAD FLASH Special Session is still accepting submissions:
https://rad2026.rad-conference.org/index.php?content=special_session

Take this opportunity to present your work as an oral contribution and publish in the RAD Journal.

Twelfth International Conference on Radiation, Natural Sciences, Medicine, Engineering, Technology and Ecology (RAD 2026 Conference).

03/05/2026

Special Session on FLASH Radiotherapy:
Ultra-High Dose Rate Radiation from Conventional and Laser - Plasma Sources
FLASH radiotherapy, based on the delivery of radiation at ultra-high dose rates (UHDR, typically >=40 Gy/s), has emerged as one of the most promising innovations in radiation oncology. Preclinical studies indicate a significant reduction of normal tissue toxicity while maintaining tumor control, known as the "FLASH effect". This special session at RAD2026 will focus on the physics, dosimetry, radiobiology, and technological challenges of FLASH beams generated both by conventional accelerators and by laser-plasma systems. Contributions will address beam generation, pulse structure, ultra-fast dosimetry, treatment planning strategies and the underlying biological mechanisms. Particular attention will be devoted to laser-driven particle and photon sources, which naturally provide extremely high instantaneous dose rates and open new perspectives for compact FLASH facilities.
In parallel, a dedicated training school for young students, PhD candidates and early-career researchers will be organized. The school will introduce the fundamentals of FLASH physics and radiobiology, laser-driven radiation source, and advanced Monte Carlo modeling with Geant4 for accurate simulation of UHDR irradiation conditions. The initiative aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and train the next generation of researchers in this rapidly evolving fields.
Contact persons:
Pablo Cirrone, INFN Catania: [email protected]
Gordana Lastovicka-Medin, University of Montenegro: [email protected]

https://www.rad2026.rad-conference.org/index.php?content=special_session

30/04/2026

Buon 50esimo compleanno ai INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud

Il 29 aprile 1976 il Presidente dell’ , il direttore del e il Rettore dell’Università di Catania firmano la convenzione che segna la nascita di questa importante realtà per il territorio siciliano
Ad majora 🎂