Proof of principle of helium‐beam radiography using silicon pixel detectors for energy deposition measurement, identification, and tracking of single ions

Hadron therapy has the capability to provide a high dose conformation to tumor regions. However, it requires an accurate target positioning. Thus, the precise monitoring of the patient’s anatomical positioning during treatment is desirable. For this purpose, hadron‐beam radiography with protons (pRad) and ions (iRad) could be an attractive tool complementing the conventional imaging technologies. On the pathway to an envisaged clinical application, several challenges have to be addressed. Among them are achieving the desired spatial resolution in the presence of multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS), performing radiographs with a sufficient thickness resolution at clinically applicable dose levels, and the search for combinations of particularly suitable hadrons and detectors. These topics are investigated in this work for a detection system based on silicon pixel detectors.

Gehrke, T., Gallas, R., Jäkel, O., & Martišíková, M. (2018). Proof of principle of helium‐beam radiography using silicon pixel detectors for energy deposition measurement, identification, and tracking of single ions. Medical physics, 45(2), 817-829.