Timing of pulsed prompt gamma rays for background discrimination

Research output: Contribution to book/conference proceedings/anthology/reportConference contributionContributed

Contributors

Abstract

In the context of particle therapy, particle range verification is a major challenge for the quality assurance of the treatment. One approach is the measurement of the prompt gamma rays resulting from the tissue irradiation. A Compton camera based on several planes of position sensitive gamma ray detectors, together with an imaging algorithm, is expected to reconstruct the prompt gamma ray emission density profile, which is correlated with the dose distribution. At Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and OncoRay, a camera prototype has been developed consisting of two scatter planes (CdZnTe cross strip detectors) and an absorber plane (Lu2SiO5 block detector). The data acquisition is based on VME electronics and handled by software developed on the ROOT platform. The prototype was tested at the linear electron accelerator ELBE at HZDR, which was set up to produce bunched bremsstrahlung photons. Their spectrum has similarities with the one expected from prompt gamma rays in the clinical case, and these are also bunched with the accelerator frequency. The time correlation between the pulsed prompt photons and the measured signals was used for background discrimination, achieving a time resolution of 3 ns (2 ns) FWHM for the CZT (LSO) detector. A timewalk correction was applied for the LSO detector and improved its resolution to 1 ns. In conclusion, the detectors are suitable for time-resolved background discrimination in pulsed clinical particle accelerators. Ongoing tasks are the test of the imaging algorithms and the quantitative comparison with simulations. Further experiments will be performed at proton accelerators.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2013 3rd International Conference on Advancements in Nuclear Instrumentation, Measurement Methods and their Applications (ANIMMA)
PublisherIEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS)
Pages1-3
Number of pages3
ISBN (print)978-1-4799-1046-5
Publication statusPublished - 27 Jun 2013
Peer-reviewedNo

Conference

Title2013 3rd International Conference on Advancements in Nuclear Instrumentation, Measurement Methods and their Applications
Abbreviated titleANIMMA 2013
Conference number3
Duration23 - 27 June 2013
CityMarseille
CountryFrance

External IDs

Scopus 84894425905
ORCID /0000-0001-9023-3606/work/142252759

Keywords

Keywords

  • Detectors, Photonics, Gamma-rays, Cameras, Prototypes, Protons