A scintillating gas detector for 2D dose measurements in clinical carbon beams (original) (raw)
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2D dosimetry in a proton beam with a scintillating GEM detector
Physics in medicine and biology, 2009
A two-dimensional position-sensitive dosimetry system based on a scintillating gas detector is being developed for pre-treatment verification of dose distributions in particle therapy. The dosimetry system consists of a chamber filled with an Ar/CF(4) scintillating gas mixture, inside which two gas electron multiplier (GEM) structures are mounted (Seravalli et al 2008b Med. Phys. Biol. 53 4651-65). Photons emitted by the excited Ar/CF(4) gas molecules during the gas multiplication in the GEM holes are detected by a mirror-lens-CCD camera system. The intensity distribution of the measured light spot is proportional to the 2D dose distribution. In this work, we report on the characterization of the scintillating GEM detector in terms of those properties that are of particular importance in relative dose measurements, e.g. response reproducibility, dose dependence, dose rate dependence, spatial and time response, field size dependence, response uniformity. The experiments were performe...
A scintillating GEM for 2D-dosimetry in radiation therapy
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2002
The first results of a study on the properties of a gaseous scintillation detector based on a Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) are reported. The detector is designed for use in position-sensitive dosimetry applications in radiation therapy. A double GEM system, operating in a 90-10% Ar-CO 2 gas mixture at a gas amplification factor of B3000, emits a sufficient amount of detectable light to perform measurements of B1 Gy doses in two dimensions. The light yield does not suffer from quenching processes when particles with high stopping power are detected. This operation mode of GEMs offers the dosimetric advantages of a gas-filled detector and the 2D read-out can be performed with a CCD camera. Compared to the existing dosimeters, this system is relatively simple and no complex multi-electrode read-out is necessary. r 0168-9002/02/$ -see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 8 -9 0 0 2 ( 0 1 ) 0 1 7 1 8 -1
First Results of a Scintillating GEM Detector for 2-D Dosimetry in an Alpha Beam
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2007
The characterization of a scintillating GEM based gas detector for quality control of clinical radio-therapeutic beams is presented. Photons emitted by the Ar/CF 4 gas mixture are detected by means of a CCD camera; in addition, the charge is measured. The detector response has been studied as a function of alpha particle energy and dose rate. The measured signal underestimation, at the Bragg peak depth, is only few percent with respect to an air filled ionization chamber.
Review of Scientific Instruments, 2010
In order to investigate the limits of scintillating screens for beam profile monitoring in the ultra-low energy, ultra-low intensity regime, CsI:Tl, YAG:Ce, and a Tb glass-based scintillating fiber optic plate ͑SFOP͒ were tested. The screens response to 200 and 50 keV proton beams with intensities ranging from a few picoampere down to the subfemtoampere region was examined. In the following paper, the sensitivity and resolution studies are presented in detail for CsI:Tl and the SFOP, the two most sensitive screens. In addition, a possible use of scintillators for ultra-low energy antiproton beam monitoring is discussed.
Physics in Medicine and Biology, 2004
Two detectors for fast two-dimensional (2D) and quasi-three-dimensional (quasi-3D) verification of the dose delivered by radiotherapy beams have been developed at University and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) of Torino. The Magic Cube is a stack of strip-segmented ionization chambers interleaved with water-equivalent slabs. The parallel plate ionization chambers have a sensitive area of 24 × 24 cm2, and consist of 0.375 cm wide and 24 cm long strips. There are a total of 64 strips per chamber. The Magic Cube has been tested with the clinical proton beam at Loma Linda University Medical Centre (LLUMC), and was shown to be capable of fast and precise quasi-3D dose verification. The Pixel Ionization Chamber (PXC) is a detector with pixel anode segmentation. It is a 32 × 32 matrix of 1024 cylindrical ionization cells arranged in a square 24 × 24 cm2 area. Each cell has 0.4 cm diameter and 0.55 cm height, at a pitch of 0.75 cm separates the centre of adjacent cells. The sensitive volume of each single ionization cell is 0.07 cm3. The detectors are read out using custom designed front-end microelectronics and a personal computer-based data acquisition system. The PXC has been used to verify dynamic intensity-modulated radiotherapy for head-and-neck and breast cancers.
Applications in radiation therapy of a scintillating screen viewed by a CCD camera
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2002
A two-dimensional (2D) dosimetry system has been designed for position-sensitive dose-measurement applications in modern radiation therapy. The system consists of a scintillating screen (Gd 2 O 2 S : Tb), observed by a low-noise CCD camera with a long integration time. The system allows reliable and accurate simultaneous 2D imaging of therapeutic dose distributions in the scintillator with sub millimeter spatial resolution. This system has been applied successfully at different applications in radiation therapy. Results of dose measurements in a treatment modality using a scanning proton beam are reported. It is shown that a quick and reliable measurement can be done. The screen+CCD system has proven to perform accurate dosimetry in applications where beams with a small (1-5 mm) diameter are used and where absolute dosimetry by means of standard ionization chambers is not possible due to their relatively large size. For the routine measurements of the alignment of therapeutic beams with respect to the tumor position, the system detects beam misalignments with an accuracy of 0.05 mm, which is more than sufficient to detect the maximum allowed misalignments in radiation therapy. r -sensitive detector 0168-9002/02/$ -see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 6 8 -9 0 0 2 ( 0 1 ) 0 1 7 8 2 -X
Gas detectors for nuclear physics experiments
EPJ Web of Conferences, 2018
In this lecture I will present the operation principle and the different kinds of gas detecting systems for charged particles employed in high-energy and low-energy physics environments, with particular focus on the requirements of nuclear physics experiments with low-energy Radioactive Ion Beams (RIBs). I will show in more details an example of gas detector used at the RIB in-flight facility EXOTIC, for the ion beam tracking and for time of flight measurements. Finally, I will discuss the use of an active target in nuclear physics experiments with RIBs together with some key improvements of first generation devices required for facing the challenges of more intense RIBs.
Ionization Chamber Dosimetry for Conventional and Laser-Driven Clinical Hadron Beams
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 2015
The practice of using the direct ionization radiation (electrons, protons, antiprotons, pions, ions, etc) or of the indirect ionization radiation (photons, neutrons, etc) in economy and social life has led to the introduction of the absorbed dose magnitude (ICRU 1953) defined as the energy absorbed per mass unit of the irradiated substance. This is a fundamental magnitude valid for any type of ionizing radiation, any irradiated material and any radiation energy. In case of clinical hadron beams generated by conventional accelerators or those controlled by lasers, IAEA TRS 398 recommends the absorbed dose to water. This may be determined employing the calorimeter method with water or graphite, chemical method, fluence based measurements as Faraday cups or activation measurements, and the ionization chamber method. In this paper the selected method was the thimble air filled ionization chamber method for determination of absorbed dose to water.