X-ray treatment at 5 MeV and above

There is agreement in the scientific community that X-ray treatment of food at 7.5 MeV can be safe. Possible process improvements for treating at higher than 5 MeV X-rays have been re-visited. Monte Carlo methods have been applied to simulate the X-ray conversion process and to calculate dose distributions in homogeneous phantoms. Experimental data obtained using X-rays produced with a Rhodotron TT200 at 5 and 10 MeV verifies a representative set of data which is calculated with the presented method.

With this qualified Monte Carlo tool, calculations at 7.5 MeV incident electron energy were performed. The analysis gives special attention to higher photon yield, improved product penetration, as well as surface and edge effects.     

Controlling surface shallow junction depth by a rapid thermal annealing process with low ambient pressure

We demonstrate the effect of annealing pressure on the redistribution of phosphorus dopants in silicon. The phosphorus concentration in the kink region is dependent on the annealing pressure that enhances the phosphorous transient out-diffusion. The phosphorous in-diffusion in the tail region is suppressed by this transient out-diffusion under low annealing pressure (below the atmosphere), and the surface shallow junction depth is reduced. The phenomenon of dose loss caused by the phosphorous piling-up or sublimation at the surface has an influence on the electrical characteristics and the surface roughness. Moderate annealing pressure can reduce the junction depth and only slightly increase the sheet resistance and surface roughness.     

Powder state alanine ESR dosimeter for measuring the absorbed dose of electron beam

This paper describes the application of powder state alanine/ESR dosimeter for measurement of the absorbed dose of electron beam, for transfer the dose standards and for quality controls of the products processed by electron beam irradiation.The dosimeter is a sealed plastic container containing pre-treated alanine powder. Spectra of the internal standard and the alanine sample are measured simultaneously by using dual - cavity of a ESR spectrometer. The internal standard is a CuCl₂. 2H₂O monocrystal which gives stable ESR signals. A diamond sample is regard as working standard. With these two standards, the measurement accuracy can be improved apparently. The standard dose value is determined with a electron beam calorimeter made in our laboratory for dose calibration purpose.The advantages and the dosimetry characteristics of the application of powder state alanine/ESR dosimeters are discussed. This method is proved accurate and easy to use. In the region of 10-10⁴Gy, the dose response show a linear relationship and the precision is better than ± 2%.     

Self-triggered impulsive control of nonlinear time delay systems: Application to chemotherapeutic dose-regimen design

This paper proposes a self-triggered impulsive control for nonlinear time-delay systems, where the time instant of the next impulsive input is calculated based on the last measurement and the values of the systems’ parameters. Contrary to event-triggered scheme where the actuation is discrete but a continuous monitoring of the system’s states is necessary, in the self-triggered approach, both sampling and actuation are performed at distinct moments of time. Utilizing Lyapunov–Razumikhin method and by upper-bounding the system’s trajectory, the global asymptotic stability of the system’s equilibrium is verified when the rate of change in the Lyapunov function is exponential. In the general case, the global ultimate boundedness of the system’s trajectory is shown where the ultimate bound can be set arbitrarily small. As an application, for the first time, the problem of dose regimen design is formulated in the sampled data framework. Then, based on the obtained theoretical results, the appropriate regimen is suggested. In particular, time-triggered and self-triggered therapy protocols for docetaxel, a phase specific chemotherapeutic drug which is administered intravenously, are proposed. Clinical constraints such as maximum tolerated dose, discontinuous drug administration, and intermittent measurements are met in the proposed therapy protocols. According to in-silico results, both proposed self-triggered and time-triggered dose regimens outperform the traditional weekly fixed dose administration. Finally, the robustness of the proposed schemes to parameter uncertainties is evaluated through an extensive set of simulations.     

Development of a protocol for small beam bi-dimensional dose distribution measurements with radiochromic films

Gafchromic™ films have become popular due to their ease of use and their near water equivalence. This last property is crucial for stereotactic small beam dosimetry as demonstrated in recent papers. An accurate bi-dimensional dose measurement with Gafchromic™ films is very challenging mainly because of the non-uniformity response of flatbed scanners (used for films digitalization) and their own non-uniformity. The first proposal of this work is to develop bi-dimensional protocol for small beams and evaluate the associated uncertainty. The second proposal is to validate this protocol for the bi-dimensional measurements of treatment plans performed with the CyberKnife^® system.First, the uniformity of an Epson V700 flatbed scanner and a batch of EBT3 Gafchromic™ films has been investigated. A “four films” dosimeter was designed to reduce the errors (statistic and systematic) due to their non-uniformity. Then, the “four films” dosimeter protocol in both a homogeneous (RW3 material) and heterogeneous (RW3, lung-like and bone-like materials) phantoms has been used to measure the bi-dimensional dose distributions of three simple CyberKnife^® treatment plans. Two tumor locations (middle of the lung and near lung/bone interface) were considered for the heterogeneous phantom. These plans were achieved with the 10 mm fixed collimator and modeled with the PENELOPE Monte Carlo code in order to calculate accurate dose distributions. Finally, the “four films” bi-dimensional dose distributions were compared to the PENELOPE Monte Carlo simulations.Regarding the uncertainty associated to the bi-dimensional dose measurement protocol, the relative standard deviation σ_D on the dose was 1.2% in the range from 0.5 to 4.0 Gy. Regarding the protocol validation on CyberKnife^® treatment plans, a very good agreement was found with all measurement points passing the {3% - 3 mm} Gamma Index criteria.     

Prompt gamma detection for range verification in proton therapy

It is an on-going challenge to verify the proton range in situ during proton therapy. Since the protons stop in target tissue, measurement of gamma-rays emitted either promptly from nuclear de-excitation or in pair from positron annihilation is the feasible method to monitor the proton range in-vivo. Using the technique of gamma collimation, we empirically demonstrated that the proton range and prompt gamma distribution are well correlated in the therapy energy range, and that measuring prompt gammas is a viable method for the clinical application. However, this collimation technique appears not to be applicable to passively scattered proton beams. The device chosen for gamma imaging in 2D is an electron tracking Compton camera, which images single-emission photons employing a gas chamber to induce Compton scattering. Images of prompt gammas were attained at the proton beam energy of 140 MeV. Measurements showed that gamma image in the energy range of 800-2000 keV provides a better match with the proton range compared to the image by lower energy gammas.     

9MeV电子直线加速器X射线测量

 高能工业CT采用9MeV电子加速器产生轫致辐射，利用高能X射线能够有效地穿透物质以及同物质对射线吸收和散射不同这一原理来检查物体内部缺陷或内部结构。加速器电子束的焦点、X射线的最高能量、X射线剂量及均匀性与工业CT成像的质量和速度密切相关；对探测器的电子线路部分进行的X射线屏蔽关系到探测器的使用寿命。X射线测量结果表明，所用9MeV电子直线加速器满足高能工业CT检测的要求。     

Critical view on TL/OSL properties of Li2B4O7 nanoparticles doped with Cu,Ag and co-doping Cu,Ag: Dose response study

Small size (25 nm) Li₂B₄O₇ nanoparticles doped with different concentrations of Cu, Ag and co-doped with Cu, Ag were prepared by solid state sintering at 700 °C. The crystalline phase and particle sizes analysis were carried out by XRD and TEM. FTIR study reveals the formation of vibrational bonds at 1600–1200 cm⁻¹, 1500–700 cm⁻¹, 950–870 cm⁻¹ and 870–415 cm⁻¹. The kinetic parameters of the TL glow curves were evaluated using CGCD procedure in R-software. The CW-OSL decay curves were fitted with third order exponential decay curves and photoionization cross sections of each component were evaluated. The lifetime of the main TL dosimetric peak were also calculated to check the stability of the signal. Dose responses of the synthesized Li₂B₄O₇ nanoparticles for both the TL and CW-OSL were studied in the range of 0.02 mGy to50 Gy and found to be linear upto this range. Fading of the CW-OSL decay curves were also studied. The MDD of the synthesized samples were also calculated and observed to be 15 μGy.     

Depth-dependence of the bulk etch rate of gamma-ray irradiated CR-39 track detector

The depth-dependent bulk etch rate has been examined for the gamma-irradiated CR-39 at doses ranging from 20 to 100 kGy. The thickness of the damaged region in gamma-irradiated CR-39 plastics, in which the bulk etch rate was significantly enhanced, was found to be limited in the thin layer near the surface and decreases with increasing the dose-rate, while it barely depend on the total dose. This indicates that it is possible to apply CR-39 plastics as high dose gamma-dosimeter by assessing both the bulk etch rate in the damaged region and its thickness in principle.