One hundred years of X-rays for many millenia of art: the experience of Italy

A short survey of applications and results of X-ray radiography in the field of Cultural Heritage is given, in the centenary of the Roentgen discovery

A High Spatial Resolution CT Scanner Prototype for Small Animal Imaging

At the Department of Physics of the University of Pisa and INFN of Pisa, we have assembled a high-resolution CT scanner prototype for small animals. The prototype will be integrated with the YAP-(S)PET scanner, in order to realize a combined PET SPECT CT scanner for small animals. We have characterized the microCT scanner prototype in terms of spatial resolution and noise using three different X-ray detectors. The first detector (Hamamatsu S7199) is composed by a CsI:Tl layer coupled to a CCD via a 1:1 fiber optic plate; the second detector (Radicon Rad-Eye 4) consists in a flat-panel CMOS sensor, directly coupled to a Ga 2 O 2 S:Tb scintillator; the third detector is a 1 mm thick Si detector, bump-bonded to the Medipix2 readout chip. The ?rst two detectors are based on indirect conversion of X-rays and operate in charge integration mode, while the third is a direct conversion detector and operates in photon counting mode. The characterization was carried out using dedicated phantoms for the measurement of spatial resolution and image noise. The results obtained with the three detectors are compared, in order to evaluate the di?erences in tomographic performances due to the different characteristics of each detector

FOOT: FragmentatiOn Of Target Experiment

International audienceThe main goal of the FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) experiment is the measurement of the differential cross sections as a function of energy and direction of the produced fragments in the nuclear interaction between a ion beam (proton, helium, carbon, ...) and different targets (proton, carbon, oxygen, ...). Depending on the beam energy, the purpose of the measurements is twofold: in the [150-400] MeV/u range, the data will be used to evaluate the side effects of the nuclear fragmentation in the hadrontherapy treatment, while in the [700-1000] MeV/u range it will be used to optimize the shielding of spaceships for long term space missions. The experiment has been funded by the INFN since September 2017 and it is currently in the construction phase. An overview of the detector, of the results obtained in several beam tests and of the expected performances will be presented