Gafchromic® EBT films for ion dosimetry

For dose delivery to patients, scanning ion beams are going to be increasingly used in the upcoming ion beam therapy facilities. Especially carbon ion beams are able to produce steep dose gradients. However, the currently used method for patient dose verification, employing ionization chamber arrays, provides a spatial resolution of 1 cm only. As continuous media, EBT films, widely used in photon therapy, are interesting candidates to be used for this purpose. The EBT film is the ancestor of the currently available EBT2 film. In our contribution two dimensional dosimetry and film response quenching in ion beams were investigated. For a real ¹²C patient plan a good qualitative agreement with the planned dose distribution including a high signal-to-noise ratio and a good resolution in the measured photon-equivalent dose was found. The depth-dose response of EBT films for a ¹²C ion beam shows response quenching, which rises towards the Bragg peak. It was quantified by the relative efficiency determined at different depths. Furthermore, the relative efficiency was measured in monoenergetic proton and carbon ion beams. All the measured efficiencies show no significant dependency on the dose up to the highest measured doses of 6 Gy. However, differences between proton and carbon ions as well as between carbon ion beams of different energies were observed. The measurements reveal, that the use of EBT films for absolute dose verification measurements requires to take the relative efficiency into account, dependent on the ion type and energy.     

Image – Based “film” dosimetry in NILPRP SSDL

This paper presents the 1D, 2D & 3D dose distribution determination method using the Real Time Dosimetry (RTD) system in NILPRP Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory (SSDL). MULTIDATA has extended the RTD system to perform traditional film dosimetry tasks directly on images. Image-based film dosimetry provided the benefits of traditional film analysis in a faster, more intuitive process for commissioning, quality assurance and beam data libraries in radiation beam applications.     

Aspartame tablets—gamma dose response and usability for routine radiation processing dosimetry using spectrophotometry

Aspartame tablets were studied for gamma dose response, using spectrophotometric read-out method. The optimum concentration for ferrous ions was $2\times {10}^{-4}\mathrm{mol}{\mathrm{dm}}^{-3}$ and xylenol orange with $2.5\times {10}^{-1}\mathrm{mol}{\mathrm{dm}}^{-3}$ of sulphuric acid for the optimum acidity in FX solution. Wavelength of maximum absorbance is 548 nm. Post-irradiation stability is appreciable i.e. for not less than one month. Dose response is non-linear with third order polynomial fit, in the dose range of 1000–10000 Gy. This system of aspartame was further used for carrying out relative percentage dose profile measurement in Gamma Cell-220. Results obtained were inter-compared with that of a glutamine dosimeter, which showed that maximum difference between the values of aspartame and glutamine systems is within $\pm 10\%$.     

Luminescence studies on rγ-ray-irradiated Dy3+-activated sodium chloride phosphor for radiation dosimetry

The lyoluminescence (LL), thermoluminescence and mechanoluminescence (ML) of a γ -ray-irradiated powder of NaCl:Dy (0.05–0.5 mol%) phosphor are reported in this paper. The nature of intensity variation of the respective luminescence spectra with different γ -ray doses and with different concentrations of Dy³⁺ doped in NaCl are found to be similar. The LL and ML intensities differed from each other, but their nature is found to be similar in a sublinear form up to a high dose (5.0 kGy) of γ -rays. Thus, the prepared phosphor may be useful for accidental radiation dosimetry up to a high dose (5.0 kGy) of γ -rays using the LL and ML techniques.     

A low loss low-temperature sintered ferrite−dielectric composite thick film for high-frequency application

Dense Ni_0.37Cu_0.20Zn_0.43Fe_1.92O_3.88/(Ba_0.6Sr_0.4)TiO₃ composite thick films were prepared through screen printing method and sintered at 880 °C. The powder XRD patterns confirm the coexistence of the two phases. The dielectric and magnetic properties are also reported. The results show that this kind of magnetic–dielectric composite thick films, possessing high permittivity and saturation magnetization, moderate dielectric tunability, and very low dielectric loss and coercivity, could be used in high-frequency communications for the capacitor–inductor integrating devices such as electromagnetic interference filters and antennas.     

Investigation of epitaxial Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4 − y film surface by low energy electron diffractometry

The surface of epitaxial Nd_1.85Ce_0.15CuO_{4 ? y} (001) (NCCO) film has been studied by low energy electron diffractometry (LEED) and photoelectron spectroscopy. Ar⁺ ion etching of a surface with subsequent annealing in oxygen at atmosphere pressure has been found to lead to the ordered structure restoration of surface layers with the symmetry type and lattice parameters corresponding to the NCCO phase. Annealing in vacuum at temperatures close to the boundary of thermodynamic phase stability results in the formation of epitaxial Ce_0.5Nd_0.5O_1.75 phase on a surface that is indicated in the LEED pattern as additional spots corresponding to the surface lattice (√2 × √2)R45°.     

Malus’ law for X-ray radiation

Light propagation through a polarizer-analyzer system is investigated on the basis of quantum concepts about the nature of light. It is shown that Malus’ law, which is based on principles of classical electrodynamics, does not fully take into account all effects that can arise under light propagation through a polarizer-analyzer system. In particular, the phenomenon of a possible change in the light frequency is not considered, e.g., in the case of X-ray radiation. The derivation of Malus’ law based on quantum principles is presented. For comparison, the differential effective cross section of the interaction between a photon and an electron is found taking into account rotation of the photon polarization plane in the Compton effect.     

New effects in low energy scattering of pµ atoms

Strong solid state effects in low energy scattering of pμ atoms in solid hydrogen are reported and analyzed. Such effects have been observed in TRIUMF experiment E742 where muons are stopped in thin frozen (3 K) layers of hydrogen. Emission of low energy pμ atoms from the hydrogen layer into adjacent vacuum was much higher than expected, based on calculations which ignored the solid nature of hydrogen. Monte Carlo simulations, performed using the scattering cross-sections with solid state effects taken into account, show the important role of the coherent elastic Bragg scattering in the diffusion of pμ atoms. For pμ energies lower than the Bragg cut-off limit (∼2 meV) the total scattering cross-section falls by several orders of magnitude, the hydrogen target becomes transparent and the emission of cold pμ atoms takes place. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The anomalous low temperature resistivity of thermally evaporated α-Mn thin film

Electrical resistivity measurements have been carried out on thermally evaporated α-Mn thin film between 300 and 1.4 K using the van der Pauw four probe technique. The film was grown on a glass substrate held at a temperature of 373 K, in an ambient pressure of 5×10⁻⁶ Torr. The results show a resistance minimum, a notable characteristic of α-Mn but at a (rather high) temperature of 194±1 K. Below the resistivity maximum which corresponds to 70 K, the resistivity drops by only 0.02 μΩm indicating a rather short range magnetic ordering. The low temperature results show a tendency towards saturation of the resistivity as the temperature approaches zero suggesting a Kondo scattering.     

Development of a very low energy μ+ beam at PSI

At PSI we are investigating the technique of decelerating an existing very intense secondary beam of surface ⁺ (4 MeV) to an energy of 10 eV using appropriate moderators. These ⁺ can then be used as a source of a tertiary beam of low energy muons with tunable kinetic energy between 10 eV and 10 keV.With a 1000 A layer of solid Argon deposited on an Al substrate we obtain a moderation efficiency (with respect to the number of incoming surface ⁺) of the order of 10^–4.Results of our investigations and the present status of the project are presented together with future plans and possibilities.     

Lattice dynamics study of low energy guest-host coupling in clathrate hydrate

Our lattice dynamics simulation of Xe-hydrate with four-site TIP4P oxygen-shell model can accurately reproduce each peak position in the inelastic incoherent neutron scattering spectrum at the acoustic band （below 15 meV） and yield correct relative intensity. Based on the results, the uncertain profile at ～6 meV is assigned to anharmonic guest modes coupled strongly to small cages. Blue shift is proposed in phonon dispersion sheet in the case of anticrossing and found to be an evident signal for guest-host coupling that explains the anomalous thermal conductivity of clathrate hydrate.     

Search for an enhanced production of low energy pions in C(p, π+)X,Cu(p, π+)X,and Cu(p, π∘)X reactions for 300 MeV≦Tp≦400 MeV

The observation of an enhancement in the production of low energy pions in the Cu(p, ⁺)X reaction is confirmed. The width of the bump is about 5 MeV around 350 MeV. A similar enhancement appears at 330 MeV for C(p, ⁺)X but the width has not been measured. An attempt to observe this behaviour in Cu(p, )X is described. From the data one cannot conclude about the existence of a structure around 350 MeV proton energy. The lack of resolution in the spectrometer may have washed out the small effect expected from ⁺ measurements.     

Novel phthalocyanine thin film for compact disc recordable

In this paper, the spin-coated thin films of phthalocyanine dye are presented. Absorption spectrum of the thin film shows a comparatively broad absorption in the wavelength range 630 - 770 nm. Optical parameters of the thin film were measured by a spectroscopic ellipsometer system. 5-in CD-R discs made of this dye exhibit good performance with Yamaha 20-speed recorder. Jitters of land and pit are less than 30 ns, and the 3T-11T's signals show very good quality. This dye is a promising recording medium for CD-R with much higher recording speed.     

A correlation for crystallite size of undoped ZnO thin film with the band gap energy – precursor molarity – substrate temperature

Transparent conducting undoped zinc oxide thin films were deposited on glass substrate by ultrasonic spray and spray pyrolysis techniques. The thin films were deposited at different substrate temperatures ranging between 300 and 450 °C with various precursor molarities. The correlation between the structural and optical properties suggests that the crystallites sizes of the films are predominantly influenced by the band gap energy of the thin films. The data of the correlation is suspected of involving some experimental measurement errors and therefore discarded in the development of the present correlation. The coefficient of correction is equal to 0.01, indicating high quality representation of data based on Eq. (1). The correlation also indicates that the crystallites sizes of the films are predominantly influenced by the band gap energy and the precursor molarity of the thin films. The model proposed of undoped ZnO thin film with substrate temperature was investigated.     

Determination of the chemical potential and the energy of the ν=1/2 FQHE system for low temperatures

We consider the energy density of a spin polarized ν = 1/2 system for low temperatures. We show that due to the elimination of the magnetic field and the field of the positive background charge in the calculation of the grand canonical potential of Chern-Simons systems through a mean field formalism one gets corrections to the well known equations which determine the chemical potential and the energy from the grand canonical potential. We use these corrected equations to calculate the chemical potential and the energy of the ν = 1/2 system at low temperatures in two different approximations. Received 14 March 2001     

Measurement of the astrophysical S factor for the low energy 2H(d,γ)4He reaction

The y-rays and protons from an Ed = 20 keV deuteron beam incident on a D-Ti target were measured. A branching ratio of the 2H(d,T)4He reaction versus the 2H(d,p)aH reaction of F.v/l'p = (1.06+ 0.34) x 10-7 has been obtained, and the astrophysical S factor of the 2H(d,T)aHe reaction at the center of mass energy Ecru ≈ 7 keV of (6.0+2.4) x 10-8 keV.b was deduced.     

P/i interfacial engineering in semi-transparent silicon thin film solar cells for fabrication at a low temperature of 150 °C

In this study, we aimed to develop semitransparent solar cells (STSCs) using hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) at a low temperature of 150 °C to support the fabrication of flexible solar modules, applicable in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). To compensate for the presumable loss of device performance at such a low processing temperature, careful control of the p/i interface is proposed. We fabricated buffer layers with hydrogen (H₂)/silane (SiH₄) gas flow ratios (R) ranging from 4 to 16 (R₄–R₁₆) to investigate their characteristics and incorporate them at the p/i interface by considering energy band matching. By employing this buffer, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a STSC was improved from 4.83% to 5.57% which is the best record in a-Si:H STSCs processed at a low temperature of 150 °C. This p/i interfacial buffer can support the realization of flexible a-Si:H-based BIPV systems using plastic- or polymer-based substrates.