Program Information
Feasibility Study of Glass Cherenkov Detector for Prompt Gamma Detection in Proton Therapy
A Lau*, Y Chen , S Ahmad , Oklahoma Univ. Health Sciences Ctr., Oklahoma City, OK
Presentations
SU-E-T-186 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit HallPurpose: To simulate a Cherenkov glass detector system utilizing prompt gamma (PG) technique to quantify range uncertainties in proton radiation therapy.
Methods: A simulation of high energy photons typically produced in proton interactions with materials incident onto a block of Cherenkov glass was performed with the Geant4 toolkit. The standard electromagnetic package was used along with several decay modules (G4Decay, G4DecayPhysics, and G4RadioactiveDecayPhysics) and the optical photon components (G4OpticalPhysics). Our setup included a pencil beam consisting of a hundred thousand 6 MeV photons (approximately the de-excitation energy released from 16O) incident onto a 2.5 x 2.5 x 1.5 cm3 of a Cherenkov glass (7.2 g of In2O3 + 90 g cladding, density of 2.82 g/cm3, Zeff = 33.7, index of refraction 1.56). The energy deposited from incident 6 MeV photons as well as secondary electrons and resulting optical photons were recorded.
Results: The energy deposited by 6 MeV photons in glass material showed several peaks that included the photoelectric, the single and double escape peaks. About 11% of incident photons interacted with glass material to deposit energy. Most of the photons collected were in the region of double escape peak (approximately 4.98 MeV). The secondary electron spectrum produced from incident photons showed a high energy peak located near 6 MeV and a sharp peak located ~120 keV with a continuous distribution between these two points. The resulting Cherenkov photons produced showed a continuous energy distribution between 2 and 5 eV with a slight increase in yield beginning about 3 eV. The amount of Cherenkov photons produced per interacting incident 6 MeV photon was ~240.7.
Conclusion: This study suggests the viability of utilizing the Cherenkov glass material as a possible prompt gamma photon detection device. Future work will include optimization of the detector system to maximize photon detection efficiency.
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