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Title: Megavoltage bremsstrahlung end point voltage diagnostic

Journal Article · · Review of Scientific Instruments
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3098947· OSTI ID:21266780
; ; ;  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Army Research Laboratory, 2800 Powder Mill Rd., Adelphi, Maryland 20873 (United States)
  2. Ecopulse, Inc., P.O. Box 528, Springfield, Virginia 22150 (United States)
  3. Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio 44555 (United States)

In a material, a beam of x rays is accompanied by various kinds of secondary radiation, including Compton electrons from collisions between the x rays and the material's electrons. For megavoltage bremsstrahlung in air, many of these Compton electrons are forward-directed and fast enough to be deflected outside the beam's edge by a magnetic field perpendicular to the beam. At the beam's edge, the dose from the deflected Compton electrons has a pattern that depends on the radiation's end point energy. Dose patterns measured with radiochromic film on a nominally 1 and 2 MV linear accelerator agree reasonably well with the corresponding Monte Carlo computations. With further development, the dose pattern produced outside the beam by such a sweeper magnet could become a noninvasive way to monitor megavoltage bremsstrahlung, when the end point energies are difficult to determine with other methods.

OSTI ID:
21266780
Journal Information:
Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 80, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3098947; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English