Overview of FLASHlab@PITZ: the New R&D Platform for FLASH Radiation Therapy and Radiation Biology

An R&D platform for electron FLASH radiation therapy and radiation biology is being prepared at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY in Zeuthen (FLASH lab @PITZ). This platform is based on the unique beam parameters available at PITZ: ps scale electron bunches of up to 22 MeV with up to 5 nC bunch charge at MHz bunch repetition rate in bunch trains of up to 1 ms in length repeating at 1 to 10 Hz. It works together with the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau (TH Wildau) as partner in close vicinity for the biological resources. A startup beamline has been installed to allow dosimetry studies and irradiation experiments on chemical, biochemical and biological samples after a 60-degree dispersive arm. The measured dose and dose rates under different beam conditions and first experimental results will be reported in this paper. In addition, a dedicated beamline for FLASH lab @PITZhas been designed for better control of the high brightness electron beams. This includes a dogleg to translate the beam and a 2D kicker system to scan the tiny beam focused by quadrupoles across the samples within less than 1 ms. Simulation studies will be presented to demonstrate the extremely flexible dose parameters with various irradiation options for electron FLASH radiation therapy and radiation biology studies.