A Laue lens is an optical component composed of a set of crystals that produce a convergent beam exploiting X-ray diffraction in transmission geometry. Employment of a system formed by a properly designed Laue lens coupled with an X-ray unit to selectively irradiate tumours is proposed. A convergent beam leads to a depth dose profile with a pronounced peak at the focal depth, which may result in a high precision of the dose delivery. Using a custom-made Monte Carlo code and the GAMOS code, we carried out a design study to determine the geometry and the optimal features of the crystals composing the lens. As an application, a Laue lens capable of focusing a 80keV beam 50cm downstream of the lens has been designed. The lens is composed of an ensemble of Si crystals with curved diffracting planes. The lens produces a focal spot of 2mm enclosing 7.64 × 106 photons for an electron charge of 1mC impinging on the surface of the X-ray tube anode. The combination of these important figures of merit makes the proposed system suitable for irradiating both sub-cm and larger tumour masses efficiently. A dose of 2Gy can be delivered to a small tumour in a few seconds, sparing at the same time the surrounding tissues.

Laue lens to focus an X-ray beam for radiation therapy

PATERNO', Gianfranco;MARZIANI, Michele;CAMATTARI, Riccardo;BELLUCCI, Valerio;MAZZOLARI, Andrea;GAMBACCINI, Mauro;GUIDI, Vincenzo
2016

Abstract

A Laue lens is an optical component composed of a set of crystals that produce a convergent beam exploiting X-ray diffraction in transmission geometry. Employment of a system formed by a properly designed Laue lens coupled with an X-ray unit to selectively irradiate tumours is proposed. A convergent beam leads to a depth dose profile with a pronounced peak at the focal depth, which may result in a high precision of the dose delivery. Using a custom-made Monte Carlo code and the GAMOS code, we carried out a design study to determine the geometry and the optimal features of the crystals composing the lens. As an application, a Laue lens capable of focusing a 80keV beam 50cm downstream of the lens has been designed. The lens is composed of an ensemble of Si crystals with curved diffracting planes. The lens produces a focal spot of 2mm enclosing 7.64 × 106 photons for an electron charge of 1mC impinging on the surface of the X-ray tube anode. The combination of these important figures of merit makes the proposed system suitable for irradiating both sub-cm and larger tumour masses efficiently. A dose of 2Gy can be delivered to a small tumour in a few seconds, sparing at the same time the surrounding tissues.
2016
Paterno', Gianfranco; Marziani, Michele; Camattari, Riccardo; Bellucci, Valerio; Mazzolari, Andrea; Gambaccini, Mauro; Guidi, Vincenzo
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11392/2355836
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 7
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 5
social impact