Linac

The setup as seen in Figure 1 mainly consists of a Varian Linatron 3000A linear accelerator (LINAC) as radiation source, a rotational stage for sample manipulation, and a two-dimensional high-energy x-ray detector array consisting of four amorphous silicon area detectors Heimann RIS 256. The source to detector distance is 3.7 m. 

The detector setup consists of four 256 x 256 pixel amorphous silicon technology sensor flat panels with 0.75 x 0.75 mm pixel size, having an active area of 192 x 192 mm [5j. These sensors are radiation sensitive up to 25 MeV and therefor well suited for detecting the LINAC radiation. The four devices are mounted onto a steel Irame each having the distance of one active area size from the other. With two vertical and two horizontal movements of the frame it is possible to scan a total area of about 0.8 x 0.8 m with 1024 x 1024 pixel during four independent measurements. 

In traditional Fan-Beam CT the radiation emitted from the X-ray tube is collimated to a planar fan, and so most of the intensity is wasted in the collimator blades (Fig. 2a). Cone-Beam CT, where the X-rays not only diverge in the horizontal, but also in the vertical direction, allows to use nearly the whole emitted beam-profile and so makes best use of the available LINAC photon flux (Fig. 2b). So fast scanning of the samples three-dimensional structure is possible. For Cone-Beam 3D-reconstruction special algorithms, taking in consideration the vertical beam divergence of the rays, were developed. 

The source of radiation is a linear accelerator with selectable primary energies of 6, 9 or 11 MeV ( VARIAN Linatron 3000 A). The output of the LINAC at 9 MV is 3000 rad ( 30 Gy) per minute. The pulse length is 3.8 microseconds with repetition frequencies between 50 and 250 Hertz. 

Due to the pulsed radiation output of the LINAC the detectors and the detector electronics have to handle very high counting rates in very short periods. Therefore the detectors have to work in a mode, where the detector output is integrated for one or several beam pulses. For that purpose the crystals are coupled to photo- diodes. Their currents are read out and analysed by the electronic board, which has been developed for this special application. 

In order to prepare the system for 3D-CT, it is not enough to integrate a second detector array. Besides this special attention has to be paid to the computer hardware, the synchronisation between object movement and the data read out as well as to the collimator of the LINAC. The collimator has been built with 4 tungsten blocks which can be moved individually m order to shape different sht sizes for 2D-CT as well as different cone angles for 3D-CT or digital radiography. 

There are seven types of electron accelerator available for industrial uses [41] (1) Van de Graaff generator (2) Cockcroft-Walton generator (3) insulated core transformer (4) parallel coupling, cascading rectifier accelerator (5) resonant beam transformer (6) Rhodetron (7) linear accelerator (LINAC). 

S. M. Gruner and D. H. Bilderback, Energy recovery linacs as synchrotron light sources. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect A 500(1-3), 25-32 (2003). 

In 2005, the contract for the European XFEL facility had already been signed by 12 major European countries including Russia and by China. Estimated cost is 800 M= with added 50 M= for detector development. The facility shall be operational in 2013. There are several competitive projects around the world. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LNLS) in Stanford, USA, is under construction and shall be operational in 2009. Korea and Japan have announced respective projects. A Japanese XFFL shall be operational in 2008. 

Table 8.1. Basic performances of two commercial medical linacs compared with...

Fig. 9.2. Schematic setup for the external injection of electrons from a LINAC into a laser wakefield...

Laser-plasma accelerator, 150 Laser-driven acceleration, 140 Lattice anharmonicity, 32 Leader, 110 Lewenstein model, 66 Lightning, 109 LINAC, 172... 

First cargo scanners using an RFQ Linac X-ray source... 

I Twin Linac, Cerenkov, Absorption, Univ, Tokyo (1985) ... 

I Laser-Linac Twin, Diode Laser, Absorption, Univ. Tokyo (1991) 1 I Laser. inac Synclu onized, Absorption, Osaka Univ, (1995) i —-----Time Resolution had remained 30 ps for 30 years----------------... 

Laser-Linac Synchronized, Absorption, Osaka Univ. (1998) 2 ps... 

The stroboscopic pulse radiolysis with the single bunch electron pulse instead of pulse trains started in Argonne National Laboratory in 1975 [54]. The research fields have been extended by the stroboscopic pulse radiolysis with the picosecond single electron bunch, although most of researches had been limited to hydrated and solvated electrons in the aqueous and alcoholic solutions. This system was unable to study the kinetics of the geminate ion recombination in liquid hydrocarbons until the modification of the Argonne linac in 1983, which made possible the quality measurements of the weak absorption. 

Figure 28 Schematic presentation of the relative situation of the different types of radiations used in therapy. Two criteria are considered the physical selectivity and the LET (or radiobiological properties). For the low-LET radiations, the physical selectivity was improved from the historical 200-kV x-rays to cobalt-60 gamma rays and the modern linacs. Even with the linacs today, significant improvement is continuously achieved (IMRT, etc.). Among the low-LET radiation, the proton beams have the best physical characteristics, but one of the issues is the proportion of patients who will benefit from proton irradiation. A similar scale can be drawn for high-LET radiation the heavy-ion beams have a physical selectivity similar to protons. Selection between low- and high-LET radiation is a biological/medical problem it depends on the tumor characteristics, and reliable criteria still need to be established (see text). (From Ref 54.)...

Low-power linacs are mostly used in cancer therapy and industrial radiography, whereas medium-power linacs are utilized in radiation processing. 

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