Updates and future plans for ion imaging at MedAustron

Speaker: Albert Hirtl

Abstract

With the commissioning of the Austrian ion beam therapy and research centre MedAustron in 2016, a unique and accessible possibility for research was provided to the scientific community. MedAustron includes a dedicated research beam line, providing particle beams with the same quality as the clinical beam lines. Currently, protons are available with energies ranging from 62 MeV to 252 MeV and, exclusively for research, 800 MeV and carbon ions with 120 MeV/u to 400 MeV/u. Additionally, low flux proton beams were commissioned for the research beam line, rendering MedAustron a very attractive testing ground for sensor and electronics development as required in medical and high energy physics. Currently, helium ion beams are being commissioned and will also be available for research in the near future.

Given the favourable conditions for conducting research related to ion beam therapy, with regular access to beam time, a collaboration has been initiated to implement a demonstrator system for ion beam imaging. This collaboration will benefit significantly from our expertise in detector technology from high energy physics and direct contact with MedAustron clinical experts. Consequently, an ion imaging demonstrator composed of an available tracking system based on double-sided silicon strip detectors, and a range telescope consisting of scintillator slabs coupled to silicon photomultipliers, was installed and tested at MedAustron. Measured and simulated data were reconstructed with the x-ray tomography reconstruction toolbox TIGRE adapted to the ion imaging reconstruction problem.

In this presentation, I will summarise our ongoing effort to establish ion imaging at MedAustron. Furthermore, our future plans to develop a new demonstrator system suitable for clinical rate conditions based on fast timing detectors for tracking and time-of-flight residual energy measurement will be outlined.

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