Ion Sources for Medical Applications

Ion sources are key components of accelerators devoted to different types of medical applications: hadron-therapy facilities (accelerating protons or carbon ions), high-intensity accelerators for boron-neutron capture therapy (using intense proton beams), and facilities for isotope production (using different ion species). The three types of application present different requirements in terms of ion beam quality, reproducibility, and beam availability. Different characteristics of ion sources will be described, along with the reasons why they are particularly interesting or largely used.