Laser-driven ion accelerators (LDIAs) are well-suited for radiobiological research on ultra-high dose rate effects due to their high intensity. For this application, a transport system is required to deliver the desired beam intensity and dose distribution while online dosimetry is required due to the inherent shot-to-shot variability of LDIAs. At the BELLA Center's iP2 beamline, we implemented two compact, permanent magnet-based beam transport configurations for delivering 10 or 30 MeV protons to a biological sample, along with a suite of diagnostics used for dosimetry. These diagnostics include multiple integrating current transformers (ICTs) for indirect online dose measurements and calibrated radiochromic films (RCFs) to measure the dose profile and calibrate the ICT dosimetry. Benchmarked Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations of the beamline allow us to predict the dose received by the sample and correct the linear energy transfer (LET)-dependent response of the RCFs. This work not only further establishes the practicality of utilizing LDIAs for radiobiological research but also highlights the BELLA Center's capacity to accommodate further experiments in this domain.

Laser-driven ion accelerators (LDIAs) are well-suited for radiobiological research on ultra-high dose rate effects due to their high intensity. For this application, a transport system is required to deliver the desired beam intensity and dose distribution while online dosimetry is required due to the inherent shot-to-shot variability of LDIAs. At the BELLA Center's iP2 beamline, we implemented two compact, permanent magnet-based beam transport configurations for delivering 10 or 30 MeV protons to a biological sample, along with a suite of diagnostics used for dosimetry. These diagnostics include multiple integrating current transformers (ICTs) for indirect online dose measurements and calibrated radiochromic films (RCFs) to measure the dose profile and calibrate the ICT dosimetry. Benchmarked Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations of the beamline allow us to predict the dose received by the sample and correct the linear energy transfer (LET)-dependent response of the RCFs. This work not only further establishes the practicality of utilizing LDIAs for radiobiological research but also highlights the BELLA Center's capacity to accommodate further experiments in this domain.

Ion beams from laser-driven plasma sources can provide ultra-short (10s of fs for 10s of MeV), ultra-low slice emittance (10s of nm), and high-charge (100s of pC) properties. Demonstrated maximum energies for laser-ion sources are just short of those needed for pivotal applications, such as proton tumor therapy. Here, a robust and energy-scalable concept is presented that could boost the energy of an ultra-intense ion bunch through multiple stages to 100s of MeV/u and even towards the relativistic regime, using identical plasma booster stages based on magnetic vortex acceleration. Electromagnetic, full-3D particle-in-cell simulations are used to demonstrate the capability to capture, accelerate, and preserve the quality of a high-charge (200 pC), 20 nm emittance proton bunch, where both source and booster stages could be realized with capabilities of existing laser facilities.