A thin target approach for portal imaging in medical accelerators

A new thin-target method (patent pending) is described for portal imaging with low-energy (tens of keV) photons from a medical linear accelerator operating in a special mode. Low-energy photons are usually produced in the accelerator target, but are absorbed by the target and flattening filter, both made of medium- or high- Z materials such as Cu or W. Since the main contributor to absorption of the low-energy photons is self-absorption by the thick target through the photoelectric effect, it is proposed to lower the thickness of the portal imaging target to the minimum required to get the maximum low-energy photon fluence on the exit side of the target, and to lower the atomic number of the target so that predominantly photoelectric absorption is reduced. To determine the minimum thickness of the target, EGS4 Monte Carlo calculations were performed. As a result of these calculations, it was concluded that the maximum photon fluence for a 4 MeV electron beam is obtained with a 1.5 mm Cu target. This value is approximately five times less than the thickness of the Cu target routinely used for bremsstrahlung production in radiotherapeutic practice. Two sets of experiments were performed: the first with a 1.5 mm Cu target and the second with a 5 mm Al target (Cu mass equivalent) installed in the linear accelerator. Portal films were taken with a Rando anthropomorphic phantom. To emphasize the low-energy response of the new thin target we used a Kodak Min-R mammographic film and cassette combination, with a strong low-energy response. Because of its high sensitivity, only 1 cGy is required. The new portal images show a remarkable improvement in sharpness and contrast in anatomical detail compared with existing ones. It is also shown that further lowering of the target's atomic number (for example to C or Be) produces no significant improvement.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/48963/2/m80816.pd

Electron accelerator-based production of molybdenum-99: Bremsstrahlung and photoneutron generation from molybdenum vs. tungsten

A new \u201cone-stage\u201d approach for production of 99Mo and other radioisotopes by means of an electron linear accelerator is described. It is based on using a molybdenum target both as a bremsstrahlung converter and as a radioisotope producing target for the production of 99Mo via the photoneutron reaction 100Mo(\u3b3,n)99Mo. Bremsstrahlung characteristics, such as bremsstrahlung efficiency, angular distribution, and energy deposition for molybdenum targets were obtained by means of the EGSnrc Monte Carlo simulation code system. As a result of our simulations, it is concluded that a 60 MeV electron beam incident on a thick Mo target will have greater bremsstrahlung efficiency than the same thickness (in units of r0) W target, for target thickness z > 1.84r0, where r0 is the electron range. A 50 MeV electron beam incident on a Mo target will result in greater bremsstrahlung efficiency than the same thickness W target (in units of r0) for target thickness case: z \u2a7e 2.0r0. It is shown for the one-stage approach with thicknesses of (1.84\u20132.0)r0, that the 99Mo-production bremsstrahlung efficiency of a molybdenum target is greater by 3c100% at 30 MeV and by 3c70% at 60 MeV compared to the values for tungsten of the same thickness (in units of the appropriate r0) in the traditional two-stage approach (W converter and separate 99Mo producing target). This advantage of the one-stage approach arises from the fact that the bremsstrahlung produced is attenuated only once from attenuation in the molybdenum converter/target. In the traditional, two-stage approach, the bremsstrahlung generated in the W-converter/target is attenuated both in the converter in the 99Mo-producing molybdenum target. The photoneutron production yield of molybdenum and tantalum (as a substitute for tungsten) target was calculated by means of the MCNP5 transport code. On the basis of these data, the specific activity for the one-stage approach of three enriched 100Mo-targets of a 2 cm diameter and thicknesses of 1, 2, and 3 radiation lengths (RL) were calculated to be: 19.54 Ci/g, 23.05 Ci/g, and 21.23 Ci/g, respectively. These results were compared with the evaluation presented in by Diamond et al. [19] for the same diameter and thickness 100Mo-targets in a two-stage approach. The comparison demonstrates that for all thicknesses under consideration, the specific activities at equilibrium in the one-stage approach are substantially greater than those evaluated in Diamond et al. [19] for the two-stage approach. More specifically, the specific activities at equilibrium in the Mo converter/target approach are greater than those in the standard W converter/Mo target approach at 100Mo target thicknesses of 1RL, 2RL, and 3RL by 28.9%, 82.5%, and 80.1%, respectively.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye