Abstract
In order to measure the energy spectra of secondary neutrons in proton and heavy-ion radiotherapy, a neutron spectrometer has been developed. In this paper, two organic scintillation detectors combined with photomultiplier tubes were used to form a dual-scintillator time-of-flight spectrometer. The performance of this spectrometer was tested with a DT neutron generator, and the detection efficiency of each detector as well as the spectrometer were simulated by Geant4 toolkit. It’s shown that the time resolution of the spectrometer is 0.797 ns with an energy resolution of 26.4% for neutrons with an energy of 14 MeV at a flight distances over 150 cm.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Schardt D, Elsässer T, Schulz-Ertner D (2010) Heavy-ion tumor therapy: physical and radiobiological benefits. Rev Mod Phys 82(1):383–425
Durante M, Paganetti H (2016) Nuclear physics in particle therapy: a review. Rep Prog Phys 79(9):096702
Thomas DJ, Alevra AV (2002) Bonner sphere spectrometers—a critical review. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A 476(1):12–20
Bramblett RL, Ewing RI, Bonner TW (1960) A new type of neutron spectrometer. Nucl Instrum Methods 9(1):1–12
Thomas DJ (2010) Neutron spectrometry. Radiat Meas 45(10):1178–1185
Liao C, Yang R (2012) Study on neutron energy spectrum correction and pulse shape discrimination with a boron-loaded scintillator. In: Nuclear science symposium and medical imaging conference. IEEE, pp 141–145
Glebov V, Meyerhofer D (2006) Development of nuclear diagnostics for the national ignition facility (invited). Rev sci Instrum 77(10E715):1–7
Birattari C, Esposito A, Ferrari A et al (1993) Calibration of the neutron rem counter LINUS in the energy range from thermal to 19 MeV. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A 324(1–2):232–238
Birattari C, Esposito A, Ferrari A et al (1998) The extended range neutron rem counter LINUS: overview and latest developments. Radiat Prot Dosim 76(3):135–148
Sadaaki Shiraishi T, Takata H, Tanaka Y et al (2020) A study on remotely-changeable moderators in Bonner sphere spectrometer for irradiation-field characterization in boron neutron capture therapy. Appl Radiat Isot 163:109213
Clarke S, Pryser E et al (2016) A scintillator-based approach to monitor secondary neutron production during proton therapy. Med Phys 43(11):5915–5924
Iwanowska J, Swiderski L, Krakowski T et al (2015) The time-of-flight method for characterizing the neutron response of liquid organic scintillators. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A 781:44–49
Shigyo N, Iwamoto Y, Satoh D et al (2000) Improvement of energy resolution in time-of-flight method for high energy neutron measurement. In: Nuclear science symposium conference record, vol 6. IEEE, pp 215–218
Forman L, Vanier PE, Welsh K (2004) Fast neutron source detection at long distances using double-scatter spectrometry. Proc Spie 5198:217–224
Satoh D, Moriguchi D, Kajimoto T et al (2011) Measurement of neutron-production double-differential cross-sections on carbon bombarded with 290-MeV/nucleon carbon and oxygen ions. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A 644(1):59–67
Fast Timing Plastic Scintillator (2016) EJ-228, EJ-230, Eljen technology[EB/OL]. https://eljentechnology.com/images/products/data_sheets/EJ-228_EJ-230.pdf
Neutron/Gamma PSD Liquid Scintillator (2018) EJ-301, EJ-309, Eljen technology[EB/OL]. https://eljentechnology.com/images/products/data_sheets/EJ-301_EJ-309.pdf
730 Digitizer Family[EB/OL] (2020). https://www.caen.it/subfamilies/730-digitizer-family/
Chikkur GC, Umakantha N (1973) A new method of determining the compton edge in liquid scintillators. Nucl Instrum Methods 107(1):201–202
Schmidt D, Asselineau B et al (2002) Characterization of liquid scintillation detectors. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A 476(1–2):186–189
Knoll GF (2010) Radiation detection and measurement, 4th edn. Wiley, Hoboken, pp 342–324
Liao C, Yang et al (2014) n/γ Pulse shape discrimination comparison of EJ301 and EJ339A liquid scintillation detectors. Ann Nucl Energy 69:57–61
Agostinelli S et al (2003) Geant4 a simulation toolkit. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A 506:250–303
Graham J, Landsberger S, Ferreira PJ et al (2012) Neutron flux characterization techniques for radiation effects studies. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 291(2):503–507
Chiesa D, Nastasi M, Cazzaniga C et al (2018) Measurement of the neutron flux at spallation sources using multi-foil activation. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A 902:14–24
Gunzert-Marx K, Iwase H, Schardt D et al (2008) Secondary beam fragments produced by 200MeVu1 12C ions in water and their dose contributions in carbon ion radiotherapy. New J Phys 10(7):37–66
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants (11705123) and the Project of the State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University (GZN1201801).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cheng, W., Jia, W., Hei, D. et al. A dual‐scintillator time‐of‐flight spectrometer for secondary fast neutrons in proton radiotherapy. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 327, 1317–1323 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07603-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07603-4