Concetta Ronsivalle - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Concetta Ronsivalle

ECS Meeting Abstracts

The photoluminescence (PL) properties of radiation-induced color centers (CCs) in lithium fluorid... more The photoluminescence (PL) properties of radiation-induced color centers (CCs) in lithium fluoride (LiF) crystals and thin films find applications in optically-pumped solid-state lasers and photonic light-emitting microdevices operating at room temperature (RT) in the visible and near-infrared spectral range [1]. Among their peculiarities, the broad tunability and high emission quantum efficiency, combined with the wide optical transparency of the hosting LiF matrix. On the other hand, LiF dosimeters based on thermoluminescence (TL) of point defects in LiF crystals and pellets have been the most widely used family of phosphors in TL dosimetry, mainly for their high radiation sensitivity at low doses and the LiF tissue-equivalence, which is essential for meaningful medical applications. The excellent thermal and optical stabilities of the laser-active F2 and F3 + electronic defects, consisting of two electrons bound to two and three adjacent anion vacancies, respectively, whose effic...

arXiv (Cornell University), Oct 12, 2020

Protons generated by the irradiation of a thin metal foil by a high-intensity short-pulse laser h... more Protons generated by the irradiation of a thin metal foil by a high-intensity short-pulse laser have shown to posses interesting characteristics in terms of energy, emittance, current and pulse duration. They might therefore become in the next future a competitive source to conventional proton sources. Previous theoretical and numerical studies already demonstrated the possibility of an efficient coupling between laser-plasma acceleration of protons with traditional RF based beam-line accelerator techniques. This hybrid proton accelerator would therefore benefit from the good properties of the laser-based source and from the flexibility and know-how of beam handling as given from RF based accelerator structure. The proton beam parameters of the source have been obtained from published laser interaction experimental results and are given as input to the numerical study by conventional accelerator design tools. In this paper we discuss recent results in the optimization and design of ...

The primary goal of the SPARC project is the commissioning of the SASE FEL operating at 500 nm dr... more The primary goal of the SPARC project is the commissioning of the SASE FEL operating at 500 nm driven by a 150-200 MeV high brightness photoinjector. Additional experiments are foreseen also in the HHG Seeded configuration at 266, 160 and 114 nm. A second beam line hosting a THz source has been recently commissioned. The recent successful operation of the SPARC injector in the Velocity Bunching (VB) mode has opened new perspectives to conduct advanced beam dynamics experiments with ultra-short electron pulses able to extend the THz spectrum and to drive the FEL in the SASE Single Spike mode. Moreover a new technique called Laser Comb, able to generate a train of short pulses with high repetition rate, as the one required to drive coherent plasma wake field excitation, has been tested in the VB configuration. The energy/density modulation produced by an infrared laser pulse interacting with the electron beam near the cathode has been also investigated. In this paper we report the exp...

Velocity bunching (or RF compression) represents a promising technique complementary to magnetic ... more Velocity bunching (or RF compression) represents a promising technique complementary to magnetic compression to achieve the high peak current required in the linac drivers for FELs. Here we report on recent progress aimed at characterizing the RF compression from the point of view of the microbunching instability. We emphasize the development of a linear theory for the gain function of the instability and its validation against macroparticle simulations that represents a useful tool in the evaluation of the compression schemes for FEL sources.

The effects of microbunching instability for the SPARX accelerator have been analyzed by means of... more The effects of microbunching instability for the SPARX accelerator have been analyzed by means of different numerical simulation codes and analytical approach. The laser heater counteracting action has been also addressed in order to optimize the parameters of the compression system, either hybrid RF plus magnetic chicane or only magnetic, and possibly enhance the FEL performance.

The region of the spectrum from 0.3 to 5 THz is of great interest for several experiments in diff... more The region of the spectrum from 0.3 to 5 THz is of great interest for several experiments in different areas of research. A THz radiation source can be produced at SPARC as coherent transition radiation emitted by either a compressed or longitudinally modulated beam intercepting a metal foil placed at 45° with respect to the beam propagation. Results on the characterization of the THz source at SPARC are described in the paper.

Ultra-short electron bunch production is attractive for a large number of applications ranging fr... more Ultra-short electron bunch production is attractive for a large number of applications ranging from short wavelength free electron lasers (FEL), THz radiation production, linear colliders and plasma wake field accelerators. SPARC is a test facility able to accelerate high brightness beam from RF guns up to 150 MeV allowing a wide range of beam physics experiments. Those experiments require detailed beam measurements and careful data analysis. In this paper we discuss the techniques currently used in our machine; by combining quadrupoles, RF deflector, spectrometer dipole and reliable data analysis codes, we manage to characterize the 6D phase space and the beam slice properties. We focus on the ongoing studies on the emittance compensation in the velocity bunching regime.

The possibility to drive a SASE X-ray FEL using the 6 GeV electron linac foreseen by the SuperB p... more The possibility to drive a SASE X-ray FEL using the 6 GeV electron linac foreseen by the SuperB project has been recently considered. In this paper a preliminary design study based on FEL scaling laws supported by HOMDYN and GENESIS simulations is presented. The goal of this work is to provide a preliminary design study of the FEL system, based on state of the art normal conducting technology, suitable to conduct a realistic evaluation of the additional costs required to drive an FEL user facility making use of the SuperB linac.

The TOP-IMPLART (Intensity Modulated Proton Linear Accelerator for RadioTherapy) proton linear ac... more The TOP-IMPLART (Intensity Modulated Proton Linear Accelerator for RadioTherapy) proton linear accelerator is under development at ENEA-Frascati. It is composed by a 7 MeV, 425 MHz injector followed by a sequence of 2997.92 MHz accelerating modules. Four 10 MW klystrons will be used to power all high frequency structures up to a beam energy of 150 MeV. The first section, consisting of 4 SCDTL modules (7 to 35 MeV), is operational at low repetition rate (up to 50 Hz). Whereas beam acceleration is effective even without closed loop control, to ensure high beam current stability the resonance frequency variation must be kept for each SDCTL module within few kHz. This is achieved implementing an automatic frequency control (AFC) loop that detects structure detuning caused by thermal drifts and produce an error signal fed to a tuning motor. A prototype of an AFC custom solution, derived from a medical electron linac, has been tested on TOP-IMPLART accelerator. This was originally designe...

The SPARC Free Electron Laser can be operated in both SASE and seeded modes. A major part of the ... more The SPARC Free Electron Laser can be operated in both SASE and seeded modes. A major part of the second stage of the commissioning, now undergoing, is dedicated to the characterization of the SASE radiation. Simultaneously, we are finalizing the experimental setup for seeding. We present an in-situ characterization of the two input seeds that are foreseen: both are obtained via harmonic genera-tion, the first one in crystal (400 and 266 nm) and the sec-ond in rare gas (Argon). We also describe the specific di-agnostics implemented for the electron-seed overlap in the undulator, together with the diagnostics for radiation anal-ysis (2D spectrometer and FROG). The seeding will enable the operation of the SPARC FEL in original cascaded con-figurations.

In the ENEA Frascati research centre the APAM (Particle Accelerators and Medical Application) lab... more In the ENEA Frascati research centre the APAM (Particle Accelerators and Medical Application) laboratory is devoted to the development of particle accelerators for medical applications. Two main facilities are operative. The TOP-IMPLART proton accelerator is a pulsed fully linear machine aimed at active intensity modulated proton therapy with a final energy of 150 MeV. The machine offers two beam extraction points: one at 3-7 MeV, on a vertical line, and the other one at 35 MeV, the maximum energy currently available, with a pulse current up to 35 μA, on the horizontal line. The REX source consists of an electron standing wave LINAC generating a beam in the energy range of 3 to 5 MeV with a pulsed current of 0.2 A. This source can generate Bremsstrahlung X-ray beams using suitable converters (Pb, W, Ta). This paper describes the experimental results of satellite activities performed in these facilities in the fields of biology, dosimetry, electronics, PIXE spectroscopy and preservat...

One of the most important challenges in any therapy is maximizing the curative effectiveness whil... more One of the most important challenges in any therapy is maximizing the curative effectiveness while minimizing the side effects; in cancer radiation therapy this trade-off essentially translates into delivering the highest dose to tumour and acceptable, possibly negligible dose to normal tissue. Due to the basic physics of proton interactions with matter, the proton-therapy may offer a better effectiveness/side-effect ratio respect to conventional radiation therapy, especially when the tumour is close to vital organs. The Italian TOP IMPLART project aims to develop the first proton linear accelerator for cancer radiotherapy. A 150 MeV proton LINAC is under construction at the ENEA Frascati research center: currently the machine is composed by a 7 MeV injector operating at 425 MHz and four 3 GHz linear accelerating modules (SCDTL-type) producing a proton beam of 35 MeV. Operational procedures are defined through measurements by different monitor types placed along the beam line. The i...

A dedicated dose delivery monitor is under development for the TOP-IMPLART proton accelerator, th... more A dedicated dose delivery monitor is under development for the TOP-IMPLART proton accelerator, the first LINAC for cancer therapy. It is expected to measure the beam intensity profile to precisely monitor the fully active 3+1D (x/y/z and intensity) dose delivery of each short pulse (few μs, 0.1-10 μA pulse current at ∼ 100 Hz) of the therapeutic proton beam (up to 230 MeV). The monitor system consists of planar gas chambers operating in ionization regime with cathode plane made of micro pattern pads alternately connected by orthogonal strips. The dedicated readout electronics features trans-impedance amplifier that dynamically adapts its integrating feedback capacitance to the incoming amount of charge, then opportunistically changing its gain. The measured absolute sensitivity is about 100 fC (better than 0.03 relative sensitivity), the dynamic range up to 10000 (2 gain settings) with time response at the level of few ns, and virtually no dead time. Small scale chamber prototype (0...

Applied Physics Letters, 2013

The Side Coupled Drift Tube Linac (SCDTL) i sa3G Hz accelerating structure for proton therapy lin... more The Side Coupled Drift Tube Linac (SCDTL) i sa3G Hz accelerating structure for proton therapy linac designed for TOP-IMPLART, an Intensity Modulated Proton Linear Accelerator for Radio-Therapy. The structure is made up of short DTL accelerating tanks for low current proton beams, coupled by side coupling cavities. The purpose of this paper is to report on the analysis of electromagnetic and the thermo-mechanical behavior for the SCDTL structure. The 3D electromagnetic analysis is used to derive the power dissipation on the structure; then one can infer the temperature distribution and deformation field in order to eventually evaluate their feedback on the electromagnetic properties of the structure as, for instance, the cavity resonant frequency shift. Such a "multi-physics” analysis has been performed for different supporting stem geometries in order to optimize the shunt impedance and the R/Q for SCDTL cavities. ELECTROMECHANICAL ANALYSIS The power losses (PL) in the SCDTL [1...

The medium-energy section of the proton linear accelerator for radiotherapy under realization in ... more The medium-energy section of the proton linear accelerator for radiotherapy under realization in the framework of the TOP-IMPLART Project consists in a high frequency 7-35 MeV SCDTL (Side Coupled Drift Tube Linac) structure. The structure, made of 4 modules supplied by one klystron, has been completely designed. The first module up to 11.6 MeV has been built and is under commissioning at ENEA-Frascati and the second and third modules are under realization. The paper describes the system and presents the main results of the experimental activity on this part of the accelerator.

A variable energy (3-7 MeV) and pulsed current (0.1 – 100 µA) proton beam has been made available... more A variable energy (3-7 MeV) and pulsed current (0.1 – 100 µA) proton beam has been made available for different applications (radiobiology experiments, detectors development, material studies) in an irradiation facility at ENEA-Frascati based on the 7 MeV injector of the proton-therapy linac under realization in the framework of the TOP-IMPLART Project. It is a 425 MHz linear accelerator consisting in a 3 MeV RFQ followed by a DTL up to 7 MeV (PL-7 ACCSYSHITACHI model) followed by an horizontal and a vertical beam transport line. The latter one is particularly suitable for radiobiology in vitro studies allowing to irradiate besides cell monolayers also cell growing in suspension culture. The paper describes the facility and the recent results of the experimental activity.

The TOP-IMPLART (Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy Linear Accelerator for Radiotherapy) linac is... more The TOP-IMPLART (Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy Linear Accelerator for Radiotherapy) linac is a 150 MeV pulsed proton linear accelerator for protontherapy applications under realization, installation and progressive commissioning at ENEA. It is the first linac running with 3GHz SCDTL (Side Coupled DTL) accelerating modules. These constitute the first two sections of the whole linac up to 71 MeV proton energy, while the accelerating structure of the following part of the accelerator is under definition. Each SCDTL section is powered by a 10 MW peak power klystron. The first section, consisting of 4 modules (7 to 35 MeV) has been completed and it is operational at low repetition rate (25 Hz). The second section, consisting of other 4 modules (up to 71 MeV), is currently under executive design. The output beam at each stage of the progressive commissioning is fully characterized. The beam is routinely employed in radiobiology experiments and detector evaluation. The paper presents ...

ECS Meeting Abstracts

The photoluminescence (PL) properties of radiation-induced color centers (CCs) in lithium fluorid... more The photoluminescence (PL) properties of radiation-induced color centers (CCs) in lithium fluoride (LiF) crystals and thin films find applications in optically-pumped solid-state lasers and photonic light-emitting microdevices operating at room temperature (RT) in the visible and near-infrared spectral range [1]. Among their peculiarities, the broad tunability and high emission quantum efficiency, combined with the wide optical transparency of the hosting LiF matrix. On the other hand, LiF dosimeters based on thermoluminescence (TL) of point defects in LiF crystals and pellets have been the most widely used family of phosphors in TL dosimetry, mainly for their high radiation sensitivity at low doses and the LiF tissue-equivalence, which is essential for meaningful medical applications. The excellent thermal and optical stabilities of the laser-active F2 and F3 + electronic defects, consisting of two electrons bound to two and three adjacent anion vacancies, respectively, whose effic...

arXiv (Cornell University), Oct 12, 2020

Protons generated by the irradiation of a thin metal foil by a high-intensity short-pulse laser h... more Protons generated by the irradiation of a thin metal foil by a high-intensity short-pulse laser have shown to posses interesting characteristics in terms of energy, emittance, current and pulse duration. They might therefore become in the next future a competitive source to conventional proton sources. Previous theoretical and numerical studies already demonstrated the possibility of an efficient coupling between laser-plasma acceleration of protons with traditional RF based beam-line accelerator techniques. This hybrid proton accelerator would therefore benefit from the good properties of the laser-based source and from the flexibility and know-how of beam handling as given from RF based accelerator structure. The proton beam parameters of the source have been obtained from published laser interaction experimental results and are given as input to the numerical study by conventional accelerator design tools. In this paper we discuss recent results in the optimization and design of ...

The primary goal of the SPARC project is the commissioning of the SASE FEL operating at 500 nm dr... more The primary goal of the SPARC project is the commissioning of the SASE FEL operating at 500 nm driven by a 150-200 MeV high brightness photoinjector. Additional experiments are foreseen also in the HHG Seeded configuration at 266, 160 and 114 nm. A second beam line hosting a THz source has been recently commissioned. The recent successful operation of the SPARC injector in the Velocity Bunching (VB) mode has opened new perspectives to conduct advanced beam dynamics experiments with ultra-short electron pulses able to extend the THz spectrum and to drive the FEL in the SASE Single Spike mode. Moreover a new technique called Laser Comb, able to generate a train of short pulses with high repetition rate, as the one required to drive coherent plasma wake field excitation, has been tested in the VB configuration. The energy/density modulation produced by an infrared laser pulse interacting with the electron beam near the cathode has been also investigated. In this paper we report the exp...

Velocity bunching (or RF compression) represents a promising technique complementary to magnetic ... more Velocity bunching (or RF compression) represents a promising technique complementary to magnetic compression to achieve the high peak current required in the linac drivers for FELs. Here we report on recent progress aimed at characterizing the RF compression from the point of view of the microbunching instability. We emphasize the development of a linear theory for the gain function of the instability and its validation against macroparticle simulations that represents a useful tool in the evaluation of the compression schemes for FEL sources.

The effects of microbunching instability for the SPARX accelerator have been analyzed by means of... more The effects of microbunching instability for the SPARX accelerator have been analyzed by means of different numerical simulation codes and analytical approach. The laser heater counteracting action has been also addressed in order to optimize the parameters of the compression system, either hybrid RF plus magnetic chicane or only magnetic, and possibly enhance the FEL performance.

The region of the spectrum from 0.3 to 5 THz is of great interest for several experiments in diff... more The region of the spectrum from 0.3 to 5 THz is of great interest for several experiments in different areas of research. A THz radiation source can be produced at SPARC as coherent transition radiation emitted by either a compressed or longitudinally modulated beam intercepting a metal foil placed at 45° with respect to the beam propagation. Results on the characterization of the THz source at SPARC are described in the paper.

Ultra-short electron bunch production is attractive for a large number of applications ranging fr... more Ultra-short electron bunch production is attractive for a large number of applications ranging from short wavelength free electron lasers (FEL), THz radiation production, linear colliders and plasma wake field accelerators. SPARC is a test facility able to accelerate high brightness beam from RF guns up to 150 MeV allowing a wide range of beam physics experiments. Those experiments require detailed beam measurements and careful data analysis. In this paper we discuss the techniques currently used in our machine; by combining quadrupoles, RF deflector, spectrometer dipole and reliable data analysis codes, we manage to characterize the 6D phase space and the beam slice properties. We focus on the ongoing studies on the emittance compensation in the velocity bunching regime.

The possibility to drive a SASE X-ray FEL using the 6 GeV electron linac foreseen by the SuperB p... more The possibility to drive a SASE X-ray FEL using the 6 GeV electron linac foreseen by the SuperB project has been recently considered. In this paper a preliminary design study based on FEL scaling laws supported by HOMDYN and GENESIS simulations is presented. The goal of this work is to provide a preliminary design study of the FEL system, based on state of the art normal conducting technology, suitable to conduct a realistic evaluation of the additional costs required to drive an FEL user facility making use of the SuperB linac.

The TOP-IMPLART (Intensity Modulated Proton Linear Accelerator for RadioTherapy) proton linear ac... more The TOP-IMPLART (Intensity Modulated Proton Linear Accelerator for RadioTherapy) proton linear accelerator is under development at ENEA-Frascati. It is composed by a 7 MeV, 425 MHz injector followed by a sequence of 2997.92 MHz accelerating modules. Four 10 MW klystrons will be used to power all high frequency structures up to a beam energy of 150 MeV. The first section, consisting of 4 SCDTL modules (7 to 35 MeV), is operational at low repetition rate (up to 50 Hz). Whereas beam acceleration is effective even without closed loop control, to ensure high beam current stability the resonance frequency variation must be kept for each SDCTL module within few kHz. This is achieved implementing an automatic frequency control (AFC) loop that detects structure detuning caused by thermal drifts and produce an error signal fed to a tuning motor. A prototype of an AFC custom solution, derived from a medical electron linac, has been tested on TOP-IMPLART accelerator. This was originally designe...

The SPARC Free Electron Laser can be operated in both SASE and seeded modes. A major part of the ... more The SPARC Free Electron Laser can be operated in both SASE and seeded modes. A major part of the second stage of the commissioning, now undergoing, is dedicated to the characterization of the SASE radiation. Simultaneously, we are finalizing the experimental setup for seeding. We present an in-situ characterization of the two input seeds that are foreseen: both are obtained via harmonic genera-tion, the first one in crystal (400 and 266 nm) and the sec-ond in rare gas (Argon). We also describe the specific di-agnostics implemented for the electron-seed overlap in the undulator, together with the diagnostics for radiation anal-ysis (2D spectrometer and FROG). The seeding will enable the operation of the SPARC FEL in original cascaded con-figurations.

In the ENEA Frascati research centre the APAM (Particle Accelerators and Medical Application) lab... more In the ENEA Frascati research centre the APAM (Particle Accelerators and Medical Application) laboratory is devoted to the development of particle accelerators for medical applications. Two main facilities are operative. The TOP-IMPLART proton accelerator is a pulsed fully linear machine aimed at active intensity modulated proton therapy with a final energy of 150 MeV. The machine offers two beam extraction points: one at 3-7 MeV, on a vertical line, and the other one at 35 MeV, the maximum energy currently available, with a pulse current up to 35 μA, on the horizontal line. The REX source consists of an electron standing wave LINAC generating a beam in the energy range of 3 to 5 MeV with a pulsed current of 0.2 A. This source can generate Bremsstrahlung X-ray beams using suitable converters (Pb, W, Ta). This paper describes the experimental results of satellite activities performed in these facilities in the fields of biology, dosimetry, electronics, PIXE spectroscopy and preservat...

One of the most important challenges in any therapy is maximizing the curative effectiveness whil... more One of the most important challenges in any therapy is maximizing the curative effectiveness while minimizing the side effects; in cancer radiation therapy this trade-off essentially translates into delivering the highest dose to tumour and acceptable, possibly negligible dose to normal tissue. Due to the basic physics of proton interactions with matter, the proton-therapy may offer a better effectiveness/side-effect ratio respect to conventional radiation therapy, especially when the tumour is close to vital organs. The Italian TOP IMPLART project aims to develop the first proton linear accelerator for cancer radiotherapy. A 150 MeV proton LINAC is under construction at the ENEA Frascati research center: currently the machine is composed by a 7 MeV injector operating at 425 MHz and four 3 GHz linear accelerating modules (SCDTL-type) producing a proton beam of 35 MeV. Operational procedures are defined through measurements by different monitor types placed along the beam line. The i...

A dedicated dose delivery monitor is under development for the TOP-IMPLART proton accelerator, th... more A dedicated dose delivery monitor is under development for the TOP-IMPLART proton accelerator, the first LINAC for cancer therapy. It is expected to measure the beam intensity profile to precisely monitor the fully active 3+1D (x/y/z and intensity) dose delivery of each short pulse (few μs, 0.1-10 μA pulse current at ∼ 100 Hz) of the therapeutic proton beam (up to 230 MeV). The monitor system consists of planar gas chambers operating in ionization regime with cathode plane made of micro pattern pads alternately connected by orthogonal strips. The dedicated readout electronics features trans-impedance amplifier that dynamically adapts its integrating feedback capacitance to the incoming amount of charge, then opportunistically changing its gain. The measured absolute sensitivity is about 100 fC (better than 0.03 relative sensitivity), the dynamic range up to 10000 (2 gain settings) with time response at the level of few ns, and virtually no dead time. Small scale chamber prototype (0...

Applied Physics Letters, 2013

The Side Coupled Drift Tube Linac (SCDTL) i sa3G Hz accelerating structure for proton therapy lin... more The Side Coupled Drift Tube Linac (SCDTL) i sa3G Hz accelerating structure for proton therapy linac designed for TOP-IMPLART, an Intensity Modulated Proton Linear Accelerator for Radio-Therapy. The structure is made up of short DTL accelerating tanks for low current proton beams, coupled by side coupling cavities. The purpose of this paper is to report on the analysis of electromagnetic and the thermo-mechanical behavior for the SCDTL structure. The 3D electromagnetic analysis is used to derive the power dissipation on the structure; then one can infer the temperature distribution and deformation field in order to eventually evaluate their feedback on the electromagnetic properties of the structure as, for instance, the cavity resonant frequency shift. Such a "multi-physics” analysis has been performed for different supporting stem geometries in order to optimize the shunt impedance and the R/Q for SCDTL cavities. ELECTROMECHANICAL ANALYSIS The power losses (PL) in the SCDTL [1...

The medium-energy section of the proton linear accelerator for radiotherapy under realization in ... more The medium-energy section of the proton linear accelerator for radiotherapy under realization in the framework of the TOP-IMPLART Project consists in a high frequency 7-35 MeV SCDTL (Side Coupled Drift Tube Linac) structure. The structure, made of 4 modules supplied by one klystron, has been completely designed. The first module up to 11.6 MeV has been built and is under commissioning at ENEA-Frascati and the second and third modules are under realization. The paper describes the system and presents the main results of the experimental activity on this part of the accelerator.

A variable energy (3-7 MeV) and pulsed current (0.1 – 100 µA) proton beam has been made available... more A variable energy (3-7 MeV) and pulsed current (0.1 – 100 µA) proton beam has been made available for different applications (radiobiology experiments, detectors development, material studies) in an irradiation facility at ENEA-Frascati based on the 7 MeV injector of the proton-therapy linac under realization in the framework of the TOP-IMPLART Project. It is a 425 MHz linear accelerator consisting in a 3 MeV RFQ followed by a DTL up to 7 MeV (PL-7 ACCSYSHITACHI model) followed by an horizontal and a vertical beam transport line. The latter one is particularly suitable for radiobiology in vitro studies allowing to irradiate besides cell monolayers also cell growing in suspension culture. The paper describes the facility and the recent results of the experimental activity.

The TOP-IMPLART (Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy Linear Accelerator for Radiotherapy) linac is... more The TOP-IMPLART (Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy Linear Accelerator for Radiotherapy) linac is a 150 MeV pulsed proton linear accelerator for protontherapy applications under realization, installation and progressive commissioning at ENEA. It is the first linac running with 3GHz SCDTL (Side Coupled DTL) accelerating modules. These constitute the first two sections of the whole linac up to 71 MeV proton energy, while the accelerating structure of the following part of the accelerator is under definition. Each SCDTL section is powered by a 10 MW peak power klystron. The first section, consisting of 4 modules (7 to 35 MeV) has been completed and it is operational at low repetition rate (25 Hz). The second section, consisting of other 4 modules (up to 71 MeV), is currently under executive design. The output beam at each stage of the progressive commissioning is fully characterized. The beam is routinely employed in radiobiology experiments and detector evaluation. The paper presents ...